Facebook staff say core products make misinformation worse

A demonstrator poses with an installation depicting Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg surfing on a wave of cash and surrounded by distressed teenagers, during a protest opposite the Houses of Parliament in central London on Monday, Oct 25, 2021, as Facebook whistleblower Frances Haugen is set to testify to British lawmakers. — AFP/Getty Images/TNS

For years, Facebook has fought back against allegations that its platforms play an outsized role in the spread of false information and harmful content that has fueled conspiracies, political divisions and distrust in science, including Covid 19 vaccines.

But research, analysis and commentary contained in a vast trove of internal documents indicate that the company’s own employees have studied and debated the issue of misinformation and harmful content at length, and many of them have reached the same conclusion: Facebook’s own products and policies make the problem worse.