Facebook takes down content based on PR over real civic issues, says ex-employee

An ex-employee of Facebook has accused the company of prioritising issues that pose public relations (PR) risks over those that can cause civic harm. First reported by Buzzfeed News, the accusations come from Sophie Zhang, a data scientist at Facebook who wrote an internal memo citing examples of how Facebook was slow to act on fake accounts etc. even when there was concrete evidence. Zhang was recently fired from Facebook.

In the memo, Zhang cites examples of how politicians in countries like Honduras, Azerbaijan, Brazil, and even India have been misusing the platform to sway public opinion.

According to the report, Facebook removed a network of accounts meant to influence the Delhi elections earlier this year, and the company made no disclosures of the same.