Facebook whistleblower Sophie Zhang speaks to TNM on networks of fake accounts and the Indian government’s refusal to allow her to depose before the Lok Sabha.
It has been 13 months since Facebook (now Meta) whistleblower Sophie Zhang flagged the threats due to proliferation of fake accounts and bots on the platform and the inauthentic behaviour that results from it. She also alleged that the social media giant was slow or reluctant to act in several such cases. Facebook considers the use of fake accounts, artificial boosting of the popularity of content or engaging in behaviours designed to enable other violations under its community standards as inauthentic behaviour.
Fake accounts can drown out the voices of real people and the figures of likes, shares and comments are artificially conflated with the help of fake accounts and bots, affecting the way people perceive truth and reality.
A data scientist on the fake engagement team at Facebook (Meta) for 2.5 years, Sophie first went viral when she wrote a 7,000-word memo right after she was fired from Facebook in September 2020 (reported by BuzzFeed News). She also turned down a severance package that came attached with signing a non-disparagement agreement which meant she would not be allowed to talk about or criticise the company. Post this, she came forward with her exposé in the Guardian on how global politics was distorted due to fake engagement, which Facebook was reluctant to act against. Since then, she deposed in...
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