'If Facebook doesn't change, Democracy may never recover' says ex-advisor to tech giant

In a dire warning on Wednesday, November 3, an early investor in Facebook and former advisor to CEO Mark Zuckerberg, Roger McNamee, said that democracy might be at risk and “may never recover” if Facebook does not change. The latter called out at the social media giant’s unauthentic practices and controversial policies with respect to users data and safety as he launched a scathing attack on the business. At a web summit in Lisbon, McNamee stated that Meta, formerly known as Facebook had an opportunity to infuse changes on its platform after the whistleblower Frances Haugen leaked the testimonies and internal documents, The Guardian newspaper reported. If the company, he said, did not make necessary changes and reforms, democracy worldwide would suffer. 

“If it [facebook] doesn’t [make changes] then democracy and our ability to make our own choices may never recover,” the former early investor of Facebook McNamee said, as he repeated his calls that the consumer behaviour manipulation should be made as “unethical as child labour”.

“Extracting the essence of our humanity in data form and then using it to manipulate our behaviour is as unethical as child labour and it should be banned the same way that child labour was banned,” he said at the summit, according to The Guardian. 

Massive revenues made via sharing divisive content 

Facebook’s parent company, Meta is able to generate massive revenues by targetting the demographics of the consumers that is collected via profiles. Just last year, the company that owns the photo-sharing app Instagram and the messaging app WhatsApp made $86bn (£63bn) from nearly 2 billion, Roger McNamee revealed citing Haugen’s testimony. The whistleblower had claimed that Facebook manipulated user behaviour through algorithms in order to promote divisive and hateful content on the platform.  “She is the first person ever to perceive that you could do whistleblowing like a tech product announcement, a tech product rollout,” McNamee said at the summit, according to The Guardian. “I would argue that the way she did her whistleblowing was the most effective product rollout since the original iPhone, and I just tip my hat to her. Simply brilliant,” he added. 

Facebook grilled by UK lawmakers over online safety 

After Facebook whistleblower Frances Haugen's shocking testimony, UK lawmakers intensely questioned the representative of Facebook, over the online security handling by the social media tech giant. Recently, the UK and US governments have dived into interrogation sessions with researchers, journalists, tech executives and experts in the field to ensure tougher social media safety protocols, especially for young children. The British government, however, seems to be further along by grilling tech giant representatives in order to improve the final version of the online safety bill, sources told Associated Press. Facebook head of global safety, Antigone Davis meanwhile defended the social security measures of the company by asserting that the "company is filled with experts" working together to make decisions.