https://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/mqw86u/i_am_sophie_zhang_whistleblower_at_fb_i_worked_to/ Press J to jump to the feed. Press question mark to learn the rest of the keyboard shortcuts [ ] Log InSign Up User account menu 6.6k I am Sophie Zhang, whistleblower. At FB, I worked to stop major political figures from deceiving their own populace; I became a whistleblower because Facebook turned a blind eye. Ask me anything. [renderTimi] Newsworthy Event Close 6.6k Posted by4 hours ago GoldHelpful5Wholesome7Silver4Hugz3Take My EnergyAlly2 I am Sophie Zhang, whistleblower. At FB, I worked to stop major political figures from deceiving their own populace; I became a whistleblower because Facebook turned a blind eye. Ask me anything. [renderTimi] Newsworthy Event Hi Reddit, I'm Sophie Zhang. I was fired from Facebook in September 2019, sending a 7.8k farewell memo on my last day that was leaked to Buzzfeed and went viral on Reddit w/ 52k upvotes. Earlier this week, I chose to go public with the Guardian in a deep-dive, because everything else has failed. Please ask me anything. I might not be able to answer every question, but if so, I'll do my best to explain why I can't. Proof: https://twitter.com/szhang_ds/status/1381700231654301696 photo of me with sign https://imgur.com/a/f1Cxu0U [compare to the pictures in the Guardian article] Sorry that this is an hour later than intended - intended to do it earlier, but the admins never got back to me on my calendar scheduling and verification. Edit: FYI - I have a call with a reporter at noon PST [an hour after this post was created]; any responses will be more intermittent after that point. Edit 2: I'm leaving for my call now. Thanks so much for the questions; I'll try to come back and respond to any further ones later, but I'm quite busy so can't promise unfortunately. Good luck everyone! Edit 3: Answered some more questions from 1-1:30 PST. I'll try to be back later in a few hours, but my afternoon is very booked. 267 comments share save hide report 92% Upvoted Log in or sign up to leave a commentLog InSign Up Sort by best View discussions in 2 other communities [renderTimi] level 1 3 hours ago " Now, with the US election over and a new president inaugurated, Zhang is coming forward to tell the whole story on the record. " Why now? 83 Reply Share ReportSave level 2 Original Poster2 hours ago I was always sure that if this happened it would be after the election. Not because my work was in the United States, but because any disclosures of these sorts have the necessary effect of creating uncertainty and doubt in existing institutions and potential use for misinformation. For instance, many U.S. conspiracy theorists are of the opinion that Mark Zuckerberg's donations to election offices in the leadup to 2020 were part of an insidious plan to rig the U.S. 2020 elections. Or for instance the way QAnon seized upon the Myanmar coup as a sort of message to the United States to do their own coup in their conspiracy theories - despite it being half the world away, they apparently believe the world to revolve around this nation. What I was most fearful of was somehow ending up as the James Comey of 2020. Thankfully that never happened. 134 Reply Share ReportSave Continue this thread level 2 Ronan87 -8 points * 1 hour agoMore than 1 child Continue this thread level 1 4 hours ago I think it's important to hold companies with major social influence accountable for their actions. What do you say to someone who applauds Facebook when the company pushes or harbors a narrative that favors said person's own political, ethical, religious, etc ideology? 362 Reply Share ReportSave level 2 Original Poster4 hours ago Wholesome At the end of the day, Facebook is a private company whose responsibility is to its shareholders; its goal is to make money. It's not that different from other companies in that regard. To the extent, it cares about ideology, it's from the personal beliefs of the individuals who work there, and because it affects their bottom line profit. I think some realistic cynicism about companies is useful to some regard as a result. If a company agrees with you on political matters, they're likely not acting out of the goodness of their hearts, but rather because it's what they believe their consumers and employees want. Ultimately, most Bay Area tech companies are somewhat internationalist and pro-human rights on ethics/politics, while irreligious - not just because their employees want that, but also because taking a different stand [e.g. genocide is allowed, or XYZ is the one true religion] would obviously alienate many of their users. 373 Reply Share ReportSave Continue this thread level 2 2 hours ago I thought its OK when private companies do it? Otherwise we should hold all the rest of tech accountable. 11 Reply Share ReportSave Continue this thread level 1 3 hours ago Hi Sophie. I was wondering if you know whether any sort of database of this kind of behavior exists? Specifically, do you know about anywhere I could go to find out which countries have a high spread of the kind of digital misinformation you've worked on? Thanks! 26 Reply Share ReportSave level 2 Original Poster2 hours ago There's online databases - the problem unfortunately is that the point of inauthenticity is to not be seen, and we don't know what we don't know. The better the groups are at being inauthentic, the less likely anyone will notice them. And it's impossible to prove that something doesn't exist, so it's necessarily imperfect. I remember while I was at Facebook looking at databases of those sorts and saying "I know it's incomplete - I caught government activity in XYZ companies that's not in these lists!" 29 Reply Share ReportSave Continue this thread level 1 3 hours ago * edited 3 hours ago What did Facebook WANT you to do in your role? 59 Reply Share ReportSave level 2 Original Poster2 hours ago My official job role was getting rid of fake engagement. The thing to understand is that the vast majority of fake engagement is not on political activity; it consists of everyday people who think they should be more popular in their personal life. To use an analogy people here might understand, it's someone going "When I make a reddit post, I only get 50 upvotes... but everything I see on the front page has thousands of upvotes and my post is definitely better! Why don't they recognize how great I am? I'll get fake upvotes, that will show them." Like many organizations, my team was very focused on metrics and numbers - to a counterproductive extent, I'd personally argue. It's known in academia as the McNamara Fallacy, which lost the U.S. the Vietnam war. Numbers are important, but if you only focus on numbers that can be measured, you necessarily ignore everything else that cannot be measured. Facebook wanted me to focus on the vast majority of inauthentic activity - that took place for reasons like personal vanity - while neglecting the much larger impact associated with inauthentic political activity. 212 Reply Share ReportSave Continue this thread level 1 4 hours ago Was Honduras the most blatant you saw? Did facebook ever considered the effect of their inaction on the people of Honduras and the international community? 87 Reply Share ReportSave level 2 Original Poster4 hours ago Honduras and Azerbaijan were the most blatant I personally saw; if you stuck a gun to my head and made me pick, I'd say Azerbaijan was more blatant. There are teams at Facebook [e.g. Human Rights] that consider the effects of not acting re ethics, individual people, and the international community. But it's not usually discussed in-depth. The goal of companies is to make money after all, and so the argument I used internally was "We need to take this down because eventually someone will notice. Besides you know how many leaks we have, and if it's ever released we sat on it for a year, it'd look terrible." Of course, I was the one who leaked it, so it became a self-fulfilling prophecy, not that we knew that at the time. 198 Reply Share ReportSave Continue this thread level 1 Original Poster4 hours ago Hi - this is Sophie. Have some phone calls with reporters now so won't be able to keep updating. If you have any further questions, I'll try to respond to them later but no promises. Thanks and good luck! 72 Reply Share ReportSave level 2 mrgruszka -35 points * 3 hours agoMore than 1 child Continue this thread level 1 3 hours ago What was the " enough is enough" event or series of events that made you take the courageous step of questioning your employer? 45 Reply Share ReportSave level 2 Original Poster2 hours ago I joined FB while being explicitly open that I didn't believe Facebook was making the world a better place, and I had joined because I wanted to help fix it. I never hid that that was how I felt about the company and my motive; it just became more and more difficult to work within the system while trying to fix it over time. 121 Reply Share ReportSave Continue this thread level 1 4 hours ago Other popular social media platforms besides Facebook--like Twitter--have responded slowly to inauthentic activity, and FB has coordinated its responses to certain kinds of inauthentic activity. What that coordination look like from your experience? Has that coordination been effective, or has it detracted from the policing of IA? Has FB coordinated its de-prioritization of of certain IA with other social media? 41 Reply Share ReportSave View Entire Discussion (267 Comments) More posts from the IAmA community Continue browsing in r/IAmA Subreddit Icon r/IAmA I Am A, where the mundane becomes fascinating and the outrageous suddenly seems normal. 20.9m Members 14.7k Online --------------------------------------------------------------------- Created May 27, 2009 Join helpReddit AppReddit coinsReddit premiumReddit gifts aboutcareerspressadvertiseblogTermsContent policyPrivacy policyMod policy Reddit Inc (c) 2021. All rights reserved Back to Top