Original subtitles

Looks like you're overheated.

Say again? Your car's overheated. I called AAA. I'm fine. Probably just

needs water. For insurance reasons, I can't try to fix your car.

You looking nearby?

I called AAA.

You can, you know.

Thank you.

The tow truck's on its way.

Yeah, I just said that many times. Ma'am, are you all right? I'm fine. That

tow truck?

You can go. Thank you.

This is signal one.

I can smell it. You want to use the clipboard?

There's no shame in using the clipboard. Last time you indicated there was quite

a bit of shame in using the clipboard.

Yeah.

Do you want me to get the clipboard for you?

Ma'am, I'm Deputy Atunbo of the San Mateo Sheriff's Department.

And this is Deputy Diaz. And I need to tell you that this conversation is being

recorded on video. And I heard because what?

Do you have any identification?

Not in California.

I don't understand.

Not in California.

No. You said you don't have identification in California.

That's not what I said.

Let's start over. Do you have any ID? In California, you are not required to

present identification to the police under these exact circumstances. Ma'am,

what's your name? Yeah, she knows I'm right.

Kaylee? Kaylee, I'm detecting the odor of alcohol, and combined with your

erratic behavior, I want to ask if you'd be willing to perform some standardized

field sobriety tests to alleviate my concern that you might be too impaired

to drive.

You need to listen to him. Would you mind putting away your phone, please? Do

you see me driving anything?

Why do I need to take your test? You're not driving this moment, but you drove

to this spot from wherever you were.

My boyfriend is driving.

Where's your boyfriend?

He left.

When? Just a few minutes ago.

Your boyfriend was driving the car. He pulled over because it overheated. You

called AAA, and then he got out and walked away.

Yes. And AAA is, you know, that's it.

Thank you. I need a yes or no answer. Are you willing to take some

standardized field sobriety tests? I wasn't driving. I am not driving now. I

don't have the keys.

The keys are in the cup holder. I am not in control of the vehicle.

The next exit's seven miles away.

There was no boyfriend.

She knows what she's doing.

I arrest her, it's gonna get tossed.

All right, Kaylee.

I'm gonna let you slide and stick around till the tow truck gets here.

You're not letting me slide.

We are.

You're not letting me slide. You just don't have enough to do anything about

it. It's your lucky night.

You're not letting me slide.

Fine.

I'm just saying you're not letting me slide. Why are you arguing about this?

I'm just saying you're not letting me slide. I don't know if this is a black

-white thing going on, because you guys like to play that card.

What are you talking about?

Pull over a white girl. We didn't pull you over. You see a white girl in this

dress. You see a hot white girl.

All this one ever wanted to be is white. Look at her. Ma'am, can you do me a

favor and not talk like that in front of... I don't have free speech. You do,

but I'm asking you not to. I am just saying... You don't know me. You don't

know my background. It's disrespectful.

first of all i wasn't even talking to you i don't care you're talking to my

partner this is disrespectful this is disrespectful and i want to talk to your

supervisor i'm the supervisor oh of course you are you know what i am

getting this on video body cams have been on since the moment we made contact

with you there's a desk so she is Getting all in my face. She's coming at

me. Bailey, let's take it easy. No, why was she getting in my face like that?

She wasn't. No, why was she getting in my face like that? Take it easy.

Don't disrespect me. She's not. No, why is she getting in my face like that? Y

'all, you don't know what I've been through, bitch.

You don't know what the fuck I've been through.

Cops are literally being assholes to me because I'm white.

This guy's name is Atumbo, swear to God. And this ghetto bitch, I don't know.

She's Spanish or some shit. Maybe he's fucking her. Yeah?

Yeah, it's funny how you stopped talking. It's funny. You were all in my

face. And now you're quiet. Wanna say hi to the internet?

Yeah? You gotta quiet.

This is what happens when you're white in America. You get treated like a

stupid fucking immigrant.

Yeah, this is where we are now.

I'm stopped for being American in America.

You're stopped because your car overheated.

You don't let me slide. You don't let me do shit.

I swear I'm gonna smack the fuck out of a cop. I swear to Christ.

You can't threaten an L.E.O. No. Why was she getting in my face like that? It's a

felony, Kaylee.

You can't do it. I am so fucking mad.

Could I swear?

I'm gonna kill this bitch. You're under arrest.

Wait. For what? Wait a minute. For what? I'm under arrest.

Threatening bodily harm. Get off of me. And resisting arrest. Where's my phone?

I want my phone.

I want my phone.

Tug truck's here.

now she's spamming some shit maybe he's fucking her yeah yeah it's funny like

stop talking it's funny and now you're quiet i want to say hi to the internet

jesus christ

So you were late for this meeting, and Tom said you were late because you just

flew in this morning, rented a car at the airport, and had trouble finding the

building, as you're not familiar with the Bay Area.

Yes. So here's my question. The rental car didn't have GPS?

It did. But you didn't use it. Yes. No, I didn't. Go ahead. Just tell her. Guys.

I didn't know how to use it. That's what I goddamn thought.

This particular kind of GPS.

Apple Maps, Google Maps, Waze. I should really... Learn how to use one of them.

I was going to say get a map, but I'm sure you're right.

We knew he wasn't a tech expert, Chris.

He couldn't find the Wall Street Journal, Andy, because he couldn't

operate the navigation system enough for Fiesta. I'm not asking for Thomas

Edison. Her concern, if I can interpret, is that it's Facebook. Jeff, the beat is

covering Facebook.

It's a tech company.

Sure, absolutely, but not really. Do you have an interest in social media? Not

even a little bit. Look, I'm an investigative reporter covering

politics, right? And something happened.

Something happened because that guy and this company are playing a strange,

outsized, unprecedented role in our lives.

That's why I'm here.

Something happened, right? It's not a tech beat, Christina. It's a political

beat. I'm an investigator.

Somebody else can write about Oculus, connectivity.

I will learn the tech that I need to learn.

No problem. Same for not being familiar with the Bay Area.

Okay.

How long do you think it'll take?

Sorry? You said you'll need to learn the tech. How long do you think that will

take? It's hard to say. 90 days.

Copy that.

If you want him, you got him.

Thank you.

By the way, I tried friending you on Facebook. Not on Facebook. What the

hell, Andy?

Jeff, I'll sign up right now. You need someone to help you?

I'm good.

Okay.

You just put in your destination.

The GPS.

You just type it in.

There's not a lot of people out there.

Yeah, you and me, we got in the game for the last two minutes of print

journalism.

Say your goodbyes.

Journalists are megalomania dressed up as righteousness.

They seek to exploit the, let's call it credulousness, often found in genuinely

good people, using their considerable talents to make the world a better

place. We're getting reports, if you can believe this, we're getting reports of

journalists posing as Facebook employees, waiting at our bus stops.

But I have a better one.

Reporters are going on Tinder and, yeah.

They're pretending to, they're, I'm trying to date us. They want to hook up.

My team knows about these things because you report them and you need to keep

doing that.

The way we're able to be completely transparent internally is by trusting

that we're all, all completely confidential externally.

Which brings me to my last item before we get to questions.

This fell.

Jeff Horwitz.

This is the journal's new Facebook detective.

We maintain excellent relations with the tech press, and that's reflected in the

coverage we get from the Valley. But Jeff's coming to us from D.C. where he

covered politics.

He's an investigative reporter.

So he's not looking for trouble.

He's hunting for it.

He doesn't find trouble.

He doesn't eat. So let us know if he or anyone else are showing up at bus stops

or in your DMs. All right, questions for anyone on stage?

My name is...

Francis is how good I've been on the civic integrity.

Hold on.

Janice. Francis.

Sorry, Francis. I'm being told I cut into question time.

You'll be first at the next team.

I knew as soon as you were unable to ask your question at the town hall that I

was next.

How can I help you?

Seriously? I've spent the last 41 hours running classifiers on political groups.

Groups that are capital G. Got it. Facebook groups. I understand.

I've defined the parameters rigorously. Groups where 30% of content hits

multiple risk factors.

Demonstrably false narratives, inflammatory partisan content. Sorry,

how many index cards are there?

Six. Six? Yeah.

Both sides.

I ran a classifier on 252 political groups. I want to ask you a question.

I'm supposed to be working on third-party fact-checker integration,

and for that matter, so are you.

Let's set that aside for a moment.

Bearing in mind that I'm pretty far behind, I have a performance review in

four days and a quarter of a million dollars in student loan debt.

How important is this presentation you're giving me right now?

I think there's an argument to be made that it's very important.

Okay. Could you make that argument to someone else?

You're closest to me.

We hardly know each other.

No, you meant she and Graca didn't hear me. Yeah, I have to draw a line.

There it is. You got it right there.

Can I talk to you for a moment?

Sure.

Have you tried that dating site?

You're here to thank me.

Shit. I've been running classifiers on political groups. Not what you're

supposed to be doing.

Groups where 30% of content hits multiple risk factors.

Just stop.

I'm going to lower my voice because I want to give you some advice.

You're getting a reputation as a Cassandra. You know who Cassandra was?

Yes. She cried wolf one too many times. That's not who Cassandra was. That's the

boy who cried wolf. Whatever. The sky is always falling down.

That's chicken little.

Cassandra was a priestess in Greek mythology.

Apollo was in love with her, so he gave her the power to see the future. But

when his love was unrequited, he added a curse that no one would believe her.

It's the exact opposite of the boy who cried wolf.

Civic integrity is the middle of a sprint, and I can't have you stopping to

do your own thing for a couple of days.

Whatever this is, bring it up when I see me.

Okay. Whatever it is, do not put it in writing. Yeah.

And check out that dating site.

I think you benefit from loosening up.

Evelyn and Zach, work faster.

I can work faster. I didn't have to keep making notes for HR about emotional

abuse. Everyone likes a wise, cracking intern. Don't ever forget that.

Finished. What'd you get?

388 to 12.

You. Hang on, I'm counting.

Counting can be hard.

Dear Harassment Diary. Finish.

388 to 12.

Me too. I'm on my way home.

MZ gave a speech at Georgetown recently, which was broadcast on Facebook.

It received close to 45,000 comments, 400 of which were posted in real time.

Of those comments, how many were positive, Zach?

388. And how many were negative, Evelyn?

12. And one commenter wrote, thank you for creating the best social platform

ever. Love you.

With seven U's. You think they've got bots creating their own comments? Well,

another one says, I love big boy, very smart Mark, all in caps.

So yes, but that's not what I'm talking about. Only 12 negative comments out of

400. They're censoring comments.

You know what the topic of the speech was?

Tell me it was free speech swear to God so I'm going to teach Zack and the girl

in turn how to develop a source Sir Jeff is magnificent at developing sources

playing the golf. No Jeff was developing a source earlier and it's recorded on

his phone We

have

much to learn from him that was just your first call that was my 26th And I

am out of numbers. So here's what I'm going to do.

I'm going to target one team.

That's the civic integrity team. And they have a credo.

Be selfless, protective, fair, representative, constructive, and

conscious. Don't they mean conscientious? I don't know what they

mean, but these people are trying to do some good.

They're not supposed to care about growth.

I mean, of course they should be conscious.

And another member of the team quit Facebook and told Time magazine, you

write code that does exactly what it's supposed to do.

and then you have to argue with execs who don't want to think about integrity,

and they shut you down. They're discontent. It's a place to start. I'm

going to do a dive on each of the team members, and then I'm going to write

personalized messages for each of them on LinkedIn.

All right, but send these two home. They have a full class schedule. They're

learning a lot here.

Yeah, be conscious.

Should there be signs around here that say breathe in and it's good for you?

You're going to write a letter to every member of the civic integrity team?

Personalized. Aren't there hundreds of people on that team?

Yeah, it'll take a few days and evenings, but I think you're both really

gonna excel at this. I'm excited for you.

I'm changing my major.

Good call.

This is your, uh, first time using the site?

I haven't used it in a while now.

I'm a sucker for exclusivity.

Maybe that's like, uh, I don't know. Why not?

People want to date within their own, um, vector?

Is that the right word?

Anyway, my thing is people assume I'm a finance bro because I pledge to frat and

I play golf.

Is that right?

I say.

And a tall handicapped.

And I'm in finance.

Why? Okay, I guess you can't really blame people for a second. BJ!

Dude! I know that guy. He's excellent.

I told you!

I told him.

Chlorophyll's an internal deodorant.

It's what? It's an internal deodorant. If you drink chlorophyll water every

day, your sweat smells like flowers.

True story.

That's not what chlorophyll does.

Yeah, I read it. Where?

It's all over Facebook.

Tell me.

What? I don't really know.

I've got to get a couple hours of sleep. I just have to.

Yes? What?

I tried calling Zach first. It went to voicemail.

He sent you to voicemail.

You guys are getting class credit for this.

In lieu of a salary.

You know what a proton message is?

It's an encrypted message.

How am I supposed to read it? It's not encrypted for you. It's encrypted for

everyone else.

Just follow the instructions on the screen. Hold on.

What is that in the background?

A showboat.

You know it?

No. It's the granddaddy of American musical theater.

Old man River, can't help loving that man.

He's just my boo.

Oh,

I'm going to punch your head. There's no doubt in my mind.

See you there.

Yeah, we got one.

Hey, man.

Mike, can you read me three headlines that are going to be on the front page

tomorrow? Any three, but word for word.

Hang on.

Thank you.

Jeff Horowitz.

I'm Frances Haugen.

That's a nice spot.

Is there a reason you chose it? I can see anyone coming up the hiking trail

before they see me. I don't hike that much.

In fact, it's my first time.

I don't get it, but I guess I can see what... Because every minute I spend

sitting next to you, I maximize the chance I'll be seen by someone I work

with.

So if it's all right with you... Sure.

You can't use my name, and this is all off the record.

Okay.

The Georgetown speech.

Yeah? The first 400 comments, 388 were positive. Is Facebook scrubbing the

comments? Who cares?

Hmm? Who cares?

Well, the speech was about free speech.

Oh, got them.

Okay. The 12 negative comments, did they have words like thanks and great?

Yes, yes. They're running an emotion analysis program that can't detect

sarcasm yet.

Hey wait, you send me a message.

What would you like to talk about?

Watch a little of this, okay

You know,

the thing about this is, she's the one who posted it. It's an alt-right group,

and she thinks she looks good.

Yeah?

Well...

This is your friend that volunteered for Progressive Causes. And four years

later, she's... that.

So I wanted to find out who radicalized her.

And? We did.

She became what we call a hyper-user.

In the last two years, she averaged nine hours and 22 minutes a day on the site.

But she's not an anomaly.

Uh-huh. Listen, before I go on, I want to make something clear.

Okay. I have a hunch you're not a fan of Facebook.

But I am. Not just Facebook Blue, but Instagram, WhatsApp, the whole company.

I believe in our mission.

You and I are allies.

Okay. I'm here to help Facebook, not hurt it.

Clear?

Yeah.

I've been dragging these around for weeks. I can't get anyone's attention.

I ran class fires on political groups.

I'd find the parameters rigorously, groups where 30% of content has multiple

risk factors.

Hang on, I don't understand what you're saying.

What didn't you understand?

All of it.

Classifiers, parameters, risk factors.

Aren't you a tech reporter?

Ish. Ish?

Don't worry about it. Just get to the bottom line.

All right, you did these things.

Yeah.

Yeah, I did these things.

And?

64% of people who join extremist groups on Facebook were sent there by our

algorithm.

That can't be right.

It is.

64% of people who joined extremist groups on Facebook were sent there by

your recommendation system?

Yes.

I need you to teach me what's on those cards.

The chairman gavels a session to order. He'll make an opening statement and

review the rules of the game.

Seven minutes for the majority, seven minutes for the minority.

Back and forth for what committee council anticipates being around ten

hours. You'll be sworn in. Do you swear or affirm that the testimony you give to

this committee today will be the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the

truth? Mm-hmm.

Please spell your name and state your current occupation for the record. M-A-R

-K-Z-U-C-K-E-R-B-E-R-G.

And your occupation?

I'm a professional defendant.

As a reminder, you are not a defendant. You're a witness.

This isn't a trial. It's a hearing. And this hearing is a globally broadcast

television show, and that's why you're paying me. I understand all of the

things that this isn't and is, as well as why I'm paying you. Good.

You read your statement, which will skip past for now.

That's a separate session, and we'll move to witness questioning.

Blair, is that the tie we chose? They're bringing in more options.

Ed. Mr. Zuckerberg, Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, the CDA,

exempts Internet service providers from liable laws that govern publishers of

books and newspapers.

Should Section 230 be repealed? That's not how he's going to ask the question.

We know.

We've got seven minutes. There's going to be six minutes, 30 seconds. So 2.30,

be repealed.

No. Senator.

No, Senator.

Why not?

It would end the internet.

Is that something your constituents are interested in doing?

Oh, Jesus Christ.

I don't think you do.

Charlie. What?

I don't think you do.

Who is that?

Charlie Garrigan.

I don't think you do know why you're paying her. Hang on. Charlie Garrigan's

here? I wanted him here.

What the... He won't hold back.

Hold back? He wrote a fucking... Heya, Charlie.

Editorial about... Listen to me. A batter steps up to the plate. He taps a

donut off the back.

You jog with weights.

He's tough on you? Good. He gets under your skin. He wrote an op-ed in the New

York... I don't care.

Do you?

Fine.

So, back to work. It was a long fucking op-ed. All right. Section 230.

Let's hear it.

Ah, answer.

Senator, from our perspective, Section 230 does two basic things.

First, it encourages free expression, which is fundamentally important.

Without it...

Without 230, platforms could potentially be liable for everything that people

say. May I interrupt?

No, but thank you for asking. Let him finish the answer.

Without 230, platforms could potentially be liable for everything that people

say. They'd face much greater pressure to take down more content. One moment.

What do we know?

It's bad.

It's going to be a series of reports. He's been working on it for months.

For months?

Very serious. That's all I know.

What is the alleging?

It's all I know. If it's a series... He's alleging a lot.

Is he the source?

I don't know what he is. I have a call with him in 20 minutes. Just the two of

us. No lawyers yet. But they're going to want us to come. The timing couldn't be

worse. Right.

We don't say anything to Mark until we know more.

We have a lot to do today.

20 minutes?

Yeah.

Guy's been working on it for months and no one in PR... No one in PR knew

anything.

Unbelievable. These speeches are not DC.

They're on.

They're getting a little crazy. Brandon, turn your phone off and put it away.

He's going to lose his mind.

Mark, if they have content violations or a number of other criteria. Or a number

of other criteria.

So I'm quite focused on this.

We don't have any data today on the real world impact of that yet, but what did

you mean you don't think I know why I'm paying Raya? She's a crisis specialist.

Fellas. Raya Akinola is crisis PR.

She's who you use when whole economies are in jeopardy.

She's who monarchies use.

If this wasn't a crisis, would I even be allowed in the building?

These guys are counting on the next round of congressional testimony to make

you likable, Mark.

I'm happy to lend a hand, but I think you're doomed.

Okay. So, revising or repealing Section 230 would end your business.

Follow-up.

Sure. What does MSI stand for?

Their response is going to be that they're aware of the problem and they're

working on it.

But along the civic integrity team, we were the ones who would be working on

it. And everything you just told me, I mean, everything on these index cards

can only be proven with the internal documents, right?

Sure. So what would you need?

To stand up the story?

Yeah.

With the internal documents?

No.

Or for you to go on the record?

Absolutely no.

I figured.

Just doing what I just did is a material violation of my NDA. Well, my last job I

covered Washington, where they're pretty serious building to the press.

Not like this.

I love Facebook.

I believe in our mission.

Sure. So that's it for me. I've done my duty off the record.

I'm out. You can collect evidence on your own.

okay i mean it please don't try and contact me i can't encourage you to

violate your contract my paper would be sued and i can't encourage you to break

the law because it's against the law i'm not asking for encouragement i came here

to say that we're playing with kerosene and matches you do the rest it was nice

meeting you i'm a fan of some of your work you can leave first

Look into something called MSI.

I've never heard of MSI, but explain 64% again. Why is this hard for you to

understand? I understand. Just explain it again.

There's a chain of restaurants that serve heroin.

64% of their customers are there because Facebook says, we think you'll enjoy

this restaurant.

Is he a nut?

We should give him a name. My source?

So we have something to call him. Call him Fred. He's a mid-level engineer. Is

he a nut?

No. I don't think so.

Civic integrity was put into place in order to examine the effects of Facebook

at scale.

Polarization, mobilization of violence, misinformation.

They're supposed to put people's interests ahead of Facebook's. They even

take an oath to be conscious.

What? They mean conscientious. The point is, some of them are true believers.

This may be one of them. Or it may be a lure to see if they can get the new guy

to chase a bad story. Tech loves to embarrass old media, and this newspaper

does not like to be embarrassed. Neither do I.

Fred's a dumb name for an alias. I can change it. No, you can't. You said Fred.

It's Fred now.

We're all going to be saying Fred like fucking idiots.

Is she ever in a good mood?

She is right now.

64%. How is that happening?

How is that happening?

Stand in the back and don't say anything.

You're extra in the scene.

Okay,

you can come on in.

Hurry.

You have muscle guys pretending to type? Are they security?

Don't talk.

Who's presenting?

Amal. Scott.

Hi.

This meeting is a follow-up to your request during the H2MT integrity

review. You asked us to explore new levers to strengthen... I don't know

your name.

Amal. Amal, I don't need the previously on. What are the decision points and

what's the recommendation?

Okay.

Okay. Integrity impact.

How much are we reducing the violation of borderline content?

Value to people.

Are we presenting meaningful engagement and positive sentiment?

How many are there?

I'm sorry?

Three. There are three?

To define terms.

We define hard actions as a removal of violating content.

Our experiment focused on soft actions, everything short of removal.

So that includes demotions, downwriting. You have to get to the end.

Okay.

We partially replace downstream models for higher... This isn't the end.

Just give him upside and downside.

Okay. If we dial back downstream MSI, we can reduce civic misinformation by 38%.

38%. Model shows if we stop boosting content most likely to be re-shared, we

reduce civic misinformation by 38%. The downside?

There's really not much.

This is a big win.

Can you assign really not much a number value?

A 1% reduction in engagement.

Just 1%. You know what 1% is at scale? That's 30 million people who just

stopped scrolling. Do you know what 38% is at scale?

Thanks. That's it.

You can go.

Just one percent.

Fucking civic integrity.

They solve problems.

They point out problems.

You're going to hear a rumor.

The civic integrity team is being dissolved.

It's not, it's not.

But if the team was dissolved, there's an argument to be made that that would

be a good thing.

We'd be absorbed into other teams.

There's no one else here, Francis.

The only one's hiking today.

It's moving northwest.

It's going to stop in a minute. You know, I'm happy to come to your place if

that's easier.

At least a dozen Facebook employees live in my building.

Well, staying at the Stanbridge Suites, you know, aren't talking doors. You

haven't found a place to live yet?

No, I should really do that.

What's on your mind?

It's been 51 days since I gave you the story.

64%. Why haven't you printed it?

Because you didn't give me a story, you told me a story. I'm trying to find

proof.

Hurry up!

Well, anytime you want to hand over the internal documents. I thought you

weren't allowed to ask me to break up. I'm not.

I don't want to spend the rest of my life being made an example of by a guy

with unlimited resources.

I told you already, you and I aren't on the same team.

I remember.

You ready to stop it?

As I said it would.

They're going to dissolve civic integrity.

It's only a matter of time.

Why do you say that?

Something that was said at a team meeting.

Sorry? He has a ballistic couch in his office.

It's bulletproof.

He also has a bulletproof wall monitor.

How does a bulletproof couch protect you? You cower behind it.

Right.

What have you found out about MSI?

Nothing.

Well, you're useless.

It's not the first time I've heard that.

Your company is very good at keeping its information private, which is more than

I could say for its users.

We used Optimize for likes.

The algorithm wants you to stay on the site for as long as possible. It's the

same as terrestrial radio or network television or any advertiser support

business. We knew what kept you scrolling because of likes.

Right. And then two years ago, a decision was made to optimize for what

would be called meaningful social interactions.

The debate is over.

I want to optimize for MSI.

And the algorithm was changed.

I found a post office.

Oh, so you have done some work.

Mark felt that more personal posts.

Things like anniversaries, birthdays, graduations.

They were being crowded out by posts from brands.

Yeah, they were. The goal was to foster more genuine interactions.

And strengthen the sense of community on the platform.

Right. He said, now I want to be clear.

By making these changes, I expect the time people spend on Facebook and some

measures of engagement will go down.

Yeah. He's a CEO deciding to make less money to improve his product.

Yeah.

So what's the problem?

Well, it doesn't explain how he radicalized my friend.

What happened?

It just is.

Buy you a burger phone.

Do you expect me to photograph documents on that?

I'm only asking because it's a felony.

My phone number is in here.

You call me anytime you like. Anything else you do with the phone, that's up to

you. I just wanted to tell you that they were going to dissolve civic integrity.

This was it.

Hey,

this is a room full of people who shouldn't sing karaoke.

I drafted a letter detailing some of my concerns in an election year. I have it

right here.

I thought some of us could sign it, or if we get enough team members... Hang

on.

Listen.

Just as nature abhors a vacuum, Facebook abhors friction.

Every single thing he does seeks to eliminate human friction.

I know, but... Francis.

Listen, have you looked at political engagement in Stuttgart?

No, of course I haven't looked at political engagement in Stuttgart. Civic

was designed to create tension between growth and safety.

We write code that creates friction.

It's only a matter of time.

I'm not signing the letter, and you're not signing the letter. Don't be

friction.

Delete that.

Sorry, I was just sitting here and I overheard. We apologize.

No, I work for Facebook, so if your daughter is being bullied, she should

report it to us and we will shut it down.

It's not Facebook, it's Instagram.

We bought it. It's one company now, separate platforms, but one company.

You can report bullying.

Only if someone's doing it on their main feed, which no one ever does.

They set up hate pages. They've made 11 hate pages about her.

I'm sorry.

I'm sorry. I... Enjoy your dinner, please.

Dad, no. Just be a sec.

Excuse me.

It's her entire social structure.

It is for all of them.

There was bullying when I was a kid, but the velocity, the size of distribution,

and the anonymity... I used to get... The school called us...

when her gym teacher saw cuts on her leg.

My wife wants to talk to the parents. Me?

I want to go see the kids.

With the fucking fairway wood.

Unplug the goddamn thing.

Come on in.

You look nice.

Were you out? No. If anyone sees me coming or going, I want it to look like

I'm on a date.

When you say a date, you mean a... Yeah, yeah.

Still no story about 64%. That's the only reason I contacted you. That's the

only reason. How long did they take when Daniel Ellsberg gave them the Pentagon

Papers? no time they did it like that do you really not see the difference

between the two but the pentagon papers he gave them the pentagon papers

yeah the switch to msi wasn't to foster more genuine interactions and strengthen

the sense of community on the platform our users were getting older Comments,

reshares, and likes all declining.

Engagement declining.

Guide every intervention.

Ranking for likes, ranking for videos, ranking chronological. Nothing has

stopped or even slowed erosion. If engagement keeps declining, and I don't

see why it wouldn't, it's going to be a bad earnings report.

We'd lose value in the third and fourth quarter.

How much value?

How do you know about this?

I bought an air-gapped computer.

That means it's never been connected to the internet.

It's an island.

It's simply a motherboard and a central processor. I know what an aircap

computer is.

Okay, well, the first time we spoke, you said you were stupid.

I'm sure I didn't say that. Ish. Hey, Woodward and Bernstein weren't White

House reporters. They were Metro.

You mean, like, they used moose?

Not metrosexual.

Metro report. They covered the city.

I love what I do. I want you to know that.

Democratization.

Giving a voice to...

Giving everyone that's what we do.

I didn't say that well.

You made it clear.

There's a photo in there.

Is it a photo of a stolen document?

Yes. Okay, then I can't handle your laptop, but if you'd open it, I'd be

happy to see what's on there.

What? Just open the damn thing.

Thank you.

This was part of a presentation given at a meeting two years ago this month.

Hmm.

Yeah.

Hmm.

There is one post that describes the kinetics of the virus.

For every case that's escalated to the ICU, there are 100 hidden cases of fresh

infections working their way up the pipeline.

Right now, there are 10 reported cases in the U.S., which means there are

hundreds we don't see yet.

You know how fast that's going to multiply exponentially?

Fast.

And you know where those 10 cases are?

What? No.

Right here.

Okay.

My point is it's going to be bad.

What is it?

I wonder why he thought that changing the metric to MSI would reverse the

trend.

And did it?

Did engagement increase?

I don't know.

They rejected your fake name.

They keep doing that.

You want to try another fake name?

No, we need a real name and a real email address.

Do you already have a Facebook account?

I do.

Evelyn, do you already have a Facebook account?

No. Wait.

I need a real person to open a fake Facebook page and start liking things. I

need to use your name. But some people might think it's really me.

Let's get started.

Evelyn Dabrowski isn't necessarily a girl. Here's what I want the profile to

say. Hang on. You're a young mother from Wilmington, North Carolina. Wait. And

you don't trust the government.

You're interested in politics, but you don't like politicians.

And anything anti-immigrant, you give it a thumbs up.

Am I being punished?

Everything increased, especially reshares. By how much?

50%. Engagement and reshares increased 50% in

a year after introducing MSI.

Yeah.

Contagions. If something doubles every day, at the end of the first week, you'd

have 128 times what you had at the start.

But at the end of the second week, you'd have 16,384 times as much.

Okay, next page.

Imagine if you're unable to see the state of the world and were only able to

see it the way it was a week ago. You'd think you were dealing with 128X when

really you're dealing with 16,000X.

That's this virus.

We're late.

Why did Gage go through the roof like this?

I don't know. Maybe we should contact an investigative reporter.

I have to.

Hello? Hey, it's me.

Yep. Reshares.

Reshare the post.

Don't just like them.

Reshare them. Okay, so that's it for me. Yes, thank you. Get home safe.

No, I mean this is really it. I'm flying to Puerto Rico in the morning.

For how long? For however long the virus lasts.

Wait.

Are you going to Puerto Rico, or are you moving to Puerto Rico?

I have celiac disease.

What is that?

It's an allergy to gluten.

An allergy? What's the worst that can happen if you eat gluten?

Death.

But a result of the celiac disease is neuropathy, which means my wrists and

ankles respond to cold with a lack of blood flow.

It's painful.

I didn't know that.

Haven't noticed I wear gloves and leg warmers a lot. I thought it was a

fashion choice.

Trying to make it work.

People are going to start working from home, so I'm taking this opportunity to

work where it's warm.

I'm renting a place in San Juan. I got an Airbnb on the beach. We were just

starting to get somewhere.

It is a terrible time for you to migrate to warm weather. It's nerve damage. It's

inconvenient for me, too.

A change in the algorithm that was designed to show more wedding pictures

boosted engagement 50%. Yeah.

Figure out why.

Let's finish packing.

No, hang on to the phone.

No. It's just a phone.

Keep it.

So what do you do now? Write more letters and start all over again? Yes.

Yeah, I'll start all over again. While waiting for a cure to be found for a

virus that was just discovered, I will develop a new source and start all over

again.

Because of gluten.

Okay, good luck.

We were getting somewhere.

What do you usually do when something like this happens?

When my source moves to Puerto Rico because of a global health crisis.

Let's regroup.

What do we have so far? Where are we?

Facebook's algorithm is recommending hate groups at an alarming rate. Yes,

and I can't prove that yet. That is a big story, but there is a bigger story.

What's the bigger story?

Why? Why?

Why is the bigger story?

All right, what is the secret ingredient in MSI that's making engagement increase

by 50% in a year? Their users are getting older. They've got competition

from TikTok and deep trouble.

Then they adjust the algorithm.

Call it meaningful social interactions. Announce publicly that MSI might make

engagement go down even more, but that's okay because they know it is really

going to go up.

What were they spiking the drink with?

I have to go back to the drawing board. I have to find a new source. No, I don't

have that kind of patience.

Go to Puerto Rico. Christina, every time we've met, Fred has come to me. All

right? I don't want to... Get him to give you the documents you need to stand

up the 64% story.

He'll be top committed. Then he will help you get to the bottom of MSI. I

promised these sources they are going to be safe. All right? If Fred is going to

continue to risk his job and more, I'd rather it come from him. I want the big

story, and then I want the bigger story. Go to Puerto Rico. With each new file he

opens, he's creating a footprint.

He knows that.

Let me think about this. Yes, think about this.

Take all of the next ten minutes.

Right.

Oh, Jeff, you would know.

Settle a bit.

Is spatula a Yiddish word?

I don't know. I don't think so.

Well, the fuck did you make that part with?

Jeff?

Yeah?

You need to see this.

We're going to move away from section 230.

Robbie, I do want to look at the alternates for the 2.30 questions and

hear what we have for political ads.

Brendan, put your phone away or we're not going to lose our jobs. Okay, but

that's right.

Mark,

political ads.

Senator.

Well, Senator. Just Senator.

Senator, I think lying is bad.

I do, and I think if you were to run a political ad with a lie, that would be

bad.

But I don't think the right thing to do is to prevent the voters from seeing

that you lied. There it is. I can live with that. I think he just catches the

corner of the plate. It's less defensive. I don't think it's defensive

at all. I think it's a win. Everybody good over here? Robbie? Brendan?

Yes. Jake? Ed?

Excellent. Charlie? Are you fucking crazy?

I'd like to take a moment to commend whoever thought it was a good idea to

bring Charlie in, right? It's a good answer.

You're providing a service by exposing the voters to the lie. It's a way of

framing... How does a voter know it's a lie? He's not literally saying... He's

talking about it. He just literally did. It's a way of framing... He's trying to

prevent the voters from making some... The question the senator asks, which

Mark will be asked, was would she be allowed to pay to run a campaign ad on

Facebook that claimed her opponent voted for a bill she didn't vote for?

The facts are publicly available.

Are they supposed to consult the congressional record? Are we? I'm just

going to sit here while you do this because time means nothing to me. You

can't give that answer. Maybe with a different tie?

You're announcing that the official policy of Facebook now allows

politicians to pay to spread disinformation. Not if it may cause

imminent harm.

Okay. Using census data, could I pay you to target predominantly black zip codes

to advertise that this year the election will be held on Wednesday?

When we roll out the census suppression policy... No, just say no.

Say no. We would never do that. Charlie, where there's imminent risk of harm...

You're not fact-checking political ads.

It's a democracy.

I believe in free speech.

Yeah, everybody does.

This can't be your answer. I'm not standing in between someone seeking

office and the voters. You are standing in between them. You're like a crossing

guard standing out in front of a school, but you're not doing anything with your

arms. So the cars are just plowing down the children because it's a democracy.

The voters aren't children. They don't need to be told to eat their vegetables.

And how about just telling us which ones are vegetables and which ones are clumps

of dirt in the shape of a carrot? People can decide on their own without any help

from me if a politician or an advocacy group is telling the truth.

They can. I respect our users.

By lying to them. I'm not the one who's lying.

And I'm not stopping them from seeing someone who is.

Most people know when they're being lied to.

How? After they aired the first episode of Gilligan's Island?

That night, a lady called the U.S. Navy in Pearl Harbor to report seven people

shipwrecked in the South Pacific.

I don't know what the fuck to make of what he just said, but I'm standing by

the Bill of Rights.

Let me talk to you.

What do you want from me?

As long as there's no risk of imminent harm, people can post what they want.

I'm not talking about the post.

The fact-check situation on the post is bad enough. I'm talking about ads.

Paid political ads. You can't leave up the ones that... What are you doing

here? Exactly. Remember, not too long... Fry asked me.

Remember that not too long ago, you valued my advice.

You and this company did well by it. That was a nice time, but it was

replaced by another time where you wrote an op-ed. That's how time works.

Do you remember what you urge your readers to do? You have to put that

aside for the moment. Facebook calamity. That's what you beseech them. And it's

fair to say our interest may not be a lot. We don't have time for this. How

much did you invest? It doesn't matter. How much? I don't remember. Not the

firm, not you personally.

Mark. 2.5 million.

And the return?

100x.

Yeah.

$250 million.

Calamitous. And hopefully you didn't wake up to the calamity until after you

divested, but if you hadn't, your $2.5 million investment would have been worth

this morning $1.2 billion. So by all means, advise me. You need to fact-check

political ads, and you need to reject the ones that... I hear it when I censor

too much, and I hear it when I don't censor enough, so I'm not going to

censor at all. Oh, you are going to profoundly regret that decision.

Remember that time you made that Hot or Not website in your dorm room and every

girl in Boston hated you? This is a worse decision than that. Much worse.

Remember when you lost a billion dollars just to make a sanctimonious point?

Okay, listen. This isn't the meeting where we talk about it. That meeting

happened already.

This is the meeting where we make me likable. I shouldn't have said that. I

know what strangers think of me.

I get to read about it every day.

So does my wife.

So do my kids.

They work in the refs.

The reason why you hear it from the left and the right on content moderation,

they work in the refs.

Facebook isn't the ref. That's the point.

That's the point, Charlie.

We're not the ref.

We're the public square.

I'm a free speech absolutist, so accept where there's imminent harm. You can't

say absolutist and accept where there's imminent harm. With the new

optimizations, with the MSI, the fire hose of bad information you are

injecting into the air supply is becoming jet powered. It's hydraulic.

Harm, I promise you, is fucking imminent.

Shades of burgundy.

I don't like those.

We need to get back to it.

What's happening back there? Why does Teddy keep coming in? Let me talk to

him. Don't worry about it. No.

Raya, we need to... What?

The Wall Street Journal.

You gotta be kidding me.

If you'd called from the airport in San Francisco instead of the airport in San

Juan, I would have told you not to get on the plane. This is the best banana

daiquiri I've ever had. Without knowing how many banana daiquiris you've had

that day, that one is meaningless.

An intern at my office set up a fake account.

She scrolled for hours every day and liked everything.

After 10 days, she was invited to join three different groups, all labeled

extremists by the FBI.

I want the internal documents.

I want proof that 64% of the members of extremist groups on Facebook were sent

there by your code.

Your coat.

Pay for your dumb drag.

My bureau chief asked me, how do you know where to look for these things?

Your bureau chief knows about me?

Well, my bureau chief, her deputy, and my editor think you're a guy named Fred.

Because of the work I did at Pinterest and Google, I'm sort of at the center of

a Venn diagram of institutional knowledge.

Understand, I'm not a basset hound you can send into the woods to ferret out

truffles. I don't think basset hounds do that, but sure. I just want to be clear.

You love your work.

Yes.

Yes, I do. I love my work. I get it. It is a good job, great pay, stock options,

benefits. I'm paid what I'm worth, but that's not what I'm talking about.

Sorry.

Connecting people, it's a virtuous mission.

Some people are awkward, Jeff. Some people are self-conscious in social

situations.

And they get to be their best self when they're alone at their keyboard. We are,

in fact, changing the world.

Yeah. You know what? It's not clear.

You know, when you first started, we were warned about you. They put your

picture up on the screen and everything.

When in history have the people who've warned about the press been the good

guys? You think we're the bad guys?

I think that you're the best tool the bad guys have ever had, and you're about

to show me proof of that, so let's move it along. That's like blaming the Zodiac

Killer on pencils and paper.

It's nothing like that. We are about democratization. I've heard that. I've

also heard you're making the world a better place.

Smug it up all you want, but we are.

Sixth grade girls are calling each other broke bitch, so I'm not entirely sold.

You're talking about the culture. We're talking about democratization.

Yeah. Francis, democracy is the best form of government.

It is not the best form of everything.

I appreciate the mansplaining. Speaking on behalf of all men now, we've heard

that feedback.

We've considered it. Done some introspection and come to the conclusion

that is something that women say when they're losing an argument.

You don't think everyone deserves a voice? Everyone has a voice.

We're born with one. Not everyone deserves a microphone.

Not everyone gets to write for the Wall Street Journal.

That's the point.

Credentials. You have to be good to work there. You have to earn it.

Yeah. Try getting a job at Facebook.

First, I'm going to show you the network architecture maps.

You know you have to explain all this, right?

Uh-huh.

Andy, hang on. I'm just looking for reception.

Okay, hey, we've got it. We can hold another week if you don't think... No,

no, no, we've got it.

Documentation, interaction among extremist groups, groups you should

join, impact study, a blind quote from the source.

They're playing with kerosene and matches.

We are playing with kerosene and matches.

Can we say he was on the civic integrity team? No. A Facebook engineer who's

remaining anonymous, so it's... Hang on, I've got another call.

Hello? The intern in your office, you said it was ten days before there was

contact? Yeah.

It's a lot less time than it took my friend.

Why? Why do you think?

The reshares.

When I was in your room, you made a phone call. Was it to the intern?

It was. And you told her to reshare, not just to like, but to reshare.

That's right.

I'm on Pacific time. I work from noon to 10. Meet me tomorrow at the place with

the dumb drink.

It was just a banana attack.

Andy. Yeah, I'm here.

Listen, I know there are easier enemies to make. The mafia would be an easier

enemy to make. Yeah.

But we're going to publish.

Hi, Miriam.

Hi, Frances. Thank you for meeting with me.

Sure. I got your message.

We have a problem.

I'm afraid we need you to come back here.

Walk with me.

Three shares.

We need to go truffle hunting.

I have to go back home tomorrow morning.

Why?

Turns out Facebook policy doesn't permit working from territories.

Even during company-wide phases of remote work.

Sorry.

Okay.

Back to gloves and leg warmers.

We can work from my hotel. We're not going to be doing any of this anymore.

I'm done. Okay.

For real.

And I'm humoring you. 64% piece ran today. It was comprehensible. I have

done my duty. Francis, there's... At some point, they're going to be able to

trace it. All they have to do is look at the package... Has anybody said

anything? No. I bet when HR contacted me this morning... You thought it was about

the story?

Yeah. And that scared the hell out of you for a minute? For a lot more than a

minute.

For more than a minute.

Who does this? Like, I'm not a Frank Capra character.

I wouldn't have thought you watched Frank Capra movies.

Why not?

I don't know. I've seen them both.

Oh, he's made more than two.

The big ones. I know what you're talking about, but you should still see Lost

Horizon, Arsenic, and Old Lace. Here comes the group. Oh, my God, shut up.

Okay.

It's because you're friends.

No,

you won't want to leave.

So, this, this, this is, I, I'm sorry. I would like to have some Spartacus-rated

courage of my conviction, but I don't.

Art and literature is at a pretty high standard for who we're supposed to be.

Antigone, John Proctor, a tale of two cities, I can't remember his name, and

Gandalf, for God's sake.

And maybe I am Chicken Little.

Maybe none of it's a big deal.

Maybe not if it's a big deal.

Anyway, I'm not going to risk my job, my future, or my freedom anymore to help a

reporter who, let's face it, is biased against tech because we're taking

journalism jobs.

Who does this?

I appreciate all the help you have given me and the risks that you've taken to do

it.

I'm sorry you had to scare me.

You were absolved For the record my bias isn't because tech

is taking journalism jobs It's because you are doing them so badly

Have

a safe flight back

The Wall Street Journal.

There's a series they've been working on. For months. A series?

Nobody knew they were working on this? Cynthia's on vacation.

Way to throw your boss under the bus.

The head of media relations is in Kathmandu. Who's the reporter?

Jeff Horwitz.

I just got off the phone with him.

It's gonna be Instagram and mental health.

Crosscheck favors elites.

Drug cartels use our services openly.

Human traffickers use our services openly.

Vaccinations, internal chat boards, and they're starting off with MSI. He has a

source and he has internal documents.

Bloody hell.

Wait, say again, what? He has a source.

He won't give me his name, but he used to work here.

When do they publish?

Starting Monday.

What did you say it was?

Jeff Horwitz.

He broke the 64% story last April.

Did you know this was happening?

No.

I don't know anything about this.

You haven't spoken to this guy? Jeff Horwitz? I've spoken with him, but I

don't know anything about this. Any source that used to work here?

Fuck! Keep your voice down.

I have a meeting with Horwitz at six tonight.

He's coming here.

Just him and me on background, and that's when I'll know more.

Six tonight?

Six o'clock.

Let's get back to work.

What was that about Instagram and mental health?

Hmm? When he listed what the journals got, he said Instagram and mental

health.

Nothing.

We're aware of the problem, and we're working on it.

And MSI.

I am not a sheep.

I'm not a sheep.

Show me the law.

Do your research.

No, no, no. Do your research. Show me the law, the federal or state law. The

store has the right. Do your research.

Ma'am. Show me the federal. state statute that requires me to wear a mask

ma'am the story is the right show me the statute ma'am i have ventures in my

purse you can have one you're a sheep you can have it

Can I come in?

I'm tested.

Sure.

I didn't even know you knew where I lived. I live in this building. We just

never run into each other.

Sorry I keep it so hot in here.

You know. Bye.

Frances, at that goodbye party, you showed me the letter you were going to

send.

It was on your screen.

Okay. She said, we're playing with kerosene and matches in the letter on

your screen that night.

And that was the blind quote in the journal story.

You're working with Jeff Harwitz.

No, Morgan.

You and I... don't know each other very well i can explain if you found out

there was a recent internal study done on the effects of instagram on teenage

girls with body image issues which is all of them what would be an acceptable

percentage of that test population whose issues were found to have gotten worse

anxiety depression and suicidal thoughts as a result of time spent on the

platform what would what would be an acceptable percentage for you of

teenage girls whose body image issues got worse as a result of their time

on our website.

Not sure.

Two percent?

One percent.

It's 32 percent.

What study?

This one.

Please give this to your friend.

before they start marketing Instagram kids.

Corner. For three.

This is it. Mills taps it out. And the rebound.

Half that ball out.

There is an explanation for this.

Have you considered that your camouflage might be drawing more attention?

Okay.

For the life of me, I couldn't remember what hotel this was. That's why I didn't

call first.

Marriott, Mata, Hilton, Hyatt, Embassy Suites, Doubletree. I couldn't remember.

I only knew where it was.

And I gave back the phone.

And I parked down the hill. And it's raining. You all right? Well, I look

ridiculous.

I should have called that out, I guess.

What's that guy so happy about?

Hmm? The one who just punched the air in front of him.

Why is he so happy?

It's a replay.

He hit a 30-foot jump shot to tie the game in the last second. Is everything

okay? Just a tie? He's that happy for a tie?

Well, they go into overtime.

Did he win in overtime?

I'll see you if the game's not over.

I can't remember ever being that happy.

Have you ever been that happy? It's the guy who punched the air.

I've never been that happy.

I'm the girl in class with her hand raised that nobody wants the teacher to

come on.

You should have just stopped raising my hand.

You and I said... Downstream MSI.

I don't know what that is. Oh, shit, you nut. What happened out there?

Downstream MSI is the avalanche for follow-on activity that makes a post go

viral. Okay. Just listen.

In the beginning, the best thing you could do was like a post. If you liked a

post, we'd show you more things like that.

Then two years ago, we optimized for MSI.

Here's what changed.

Emoji responses will be worth five times as much as a like.

Comments will be worth 15 times as much as a like. And reshares will be worth 30

times as much.

The algorithm wants to show you content that you're going to reshare. It wants

that badly.

The algorithm shift is easily positioned as an adjustment that's good for people,

not good for Facebook.

Now, I want to be clear.

By making these changes, I expect the time people spend on Facebook and some

measures of engagement will go down.

Can you guess what the problem is?

By prioritizing content that gets reshared at 30 times the power of a

like? Wait. No, wait.

Ma, we know what gets re-shared the most. Raya, respectfully, you're not

supposed to... We already know.

Outrage break. We already know. Raya! We have God knows how many internal studies

showing what gets re-shared the most. We already know.

Jesus Christ.

Yeah. At a time when we're trying to address misinformation, hyper

-partisanship, hate speech, you're going to amplify and turbocharge it. He's

right, Raya. You're not supposed to... It's antithetical, David, to connecting

people, which, as I understand, was the whole ethos of... It's not right, Raya.

It's a public... We have studies.

Clear as day.

We're a court board.

What?

We're a court board. We don't control what people pin to it.

But you can, right?

The debate is over.

I want to optimize for MSI.

Jesus, Francis, somewhere in that computer is evidence that senior

leadership knew. That he knew that the things most likely to be re-shared

are... Anything that makes you angry.

That's just something that happened.

He's gone.

Room service. I ordered dinner.

Relax. It's okay.

In your experience, how hard is it to get powerful people to change something

you're doing?

When it's about money, it's hard.

Yeah. But when it's not about money, it's really hard.

You have to cause pain.

You have to make it hurt.

I quit my job today.

You quit your job? I can't take their money while I'm stealing their

documents.

I'd lose access midnight Friday, so we have 102 hours to get everything.

How much do you think there is on MSI? No, I mean everything.

This is a study that hasn't been made public of Instagram and teen mental

health.

There's also going to be evidence of drug cartels and drug traffickers.

Human traffickers.

You guys are going to need more ink.

102 hours.

If I work here, it'll save time running back and forth with the phone.

Sidney Carton.

It's the name of the hero in Tale of Two Cities.

They chop his head off.

See, this is what I'm talking about. I get it. Let's go to work.

Don't say users. Say people.

Don't say humans. It sounds like you're running an experiment.

Blair, you have one job. To find a necktie for this man here.

It's not as simple as it seems. It can't possibly be more complicated than it

seems. You'd be surprised. I'd be thunderstruck. Blue.

We tried blue.

Different blue.

Okay. Feel.

Felt. Found.

Acknowledge how people feel.

Acknowledge that others have felt the same way. And share what Facebook has

found and is doing about it. Yeah, and fact check political ads. We are past

that now.

Go back to it. This isn't the meeting where we do this.

Facts are subjective.

No, they're not. They are, actually. They are.

What if a political ad said that a president created six million jobs,

including a half a million manufacturing jobs?

To fact check that, you'd have to determine whether that was good or

gross. whether the active voice claiming causation was appropriate, and whether

the job growth stemmed from pre-existing economic momentum. Bureau of Labor

Statistics. Stop. Go with that.

Mark. Enough!

You've been at me all morning, and I'm done.

People around here understand that when I say no, that's the end of the debate.

I'm not two years out of a dorm room anymore, Charlie. Look around.

Okay, guys. Dammit.

You're acting like a jilted lover, Charlie. You are. I remember that.

When you were briefing against me? We met once.

We met once a week, every week for three years. Once, like once upon a time.

You gave me advice, I took some of it. All of it. Some of it. Did you sell to

Yahoo? I didn't. You're welcome, but that doesn't... You committed a pretty

stunning act of betrayal, and now we don't meet anymore. Oh, I left when you

started commoditizing gullibility.

And so I lost a ton of money.

And I'm troubled that you think that that's something I should find

embarrassing. For a VC?

Do you know what the three most popular posts were yesterday?

No. Two of them were factually absurd, one of them was perverse.

All three were hysterical and stupid, and none of them had any news value at

all. Those people are perverse, hysterical, and stupid, Charlie. That's

not me posting that shit.

But aren't you a little embarrassed?

We don't meet anymore, so I don't know why you're here. I'm here to tell you to

fact-check political ads. Well, I'm here to say no. It's impossible, Charlie.

At scale, it's impossible.

Expecting real-time betting?

Millions of political ads across diverse electoral systems in a hundred different

languages simply isn't impossible. You're gonna sell fewer ads!

That's all!

You're going to sell fewer ads, but you're not going to care because

political advertising accounts for less than one half of one percent of your

revenue. A fraction that can more than be made up for in the goodwill that

comes from people knowing that a political advertisement on Facebook

platforms is factually accurate.

Change a zero to a one or a one to a zero. Just do it.

You finished?

Or is it possible that the politicians who stand to benefit the most from

misinformation are also the ones most likely to create a more relaxed

regulatory environment?

The ones least likely to reform Section 230.

It's a business, Charlie.

You know why we don't fact-check ads?

It's because we don't have to.

Are you new?

All right.

Body language, Mark.

Start with a gentle nod to show engagement.

Let me see it now, whilst I'm talking to you.

Yeah, not so much, a little softer.

Yeah. We're switching out his tie, are we not?

Shut the fuck up.

What's going on back there?

What?

They need bark.

Forget the Wall Street Journal, I can't today.

No, it's the Capitol.

What's happened at the Capitol?

They've made contact with the police.

It's been declared a riot.

Are you seeing this?

What? They just put out an agency white bullet and anyone with a badge and a

gun. We're setting up an IPOC. A what?

It stands for Integrated Product Officer War Room.

European political parties telling us that change to MSI forced them to

produce more negative

What qualifies as an elite user?

That's the problem.

I need Jordan, and I need... Jordan, can we let him keep posting?

Sit in, President.

Did they teach any math at your school? Did you go to a Baptist?

school where math was like witchcraft or dancing.

I went to regular school.

Keep up.

Look at the NEQ dashboard now.

These boy line pages are getting massive distribution.

We saw changes directly to production. We can't wait.

Hey,

buddy, you can't let him post anymore.

GYSJ needs tighter filtering.

Mark, we have to tighten filtering.

The effort to attract preaching is going beyond Instagram. You're going to want

to see this document.

I need full documentation on all 16 measures.

Reinserting any key measures for these pages.

Demoting all... Yes.

Is he telling them to disperse?

We judge the risk of fake positive outweighs the benefits of automation.

That's internal policy.

So the risk of incitement isn't as bad as the risk of blowback if they remove a

post. Yep.

Francis?

I'm locked out.

They did it an hour early.

It's okay.

We got it.

We got it.

Heaven help me.

What was that?

Going on the record.

You're tired.

Use my name. You don't want to do that. This would all have more weight if I

wasn't anonymous.

Right? When this happens, I tell my sources to take 24 hours. As soon as you

publish, they're going to narrow it down to five people. With this, combination

of documents, the way they trace it. I cannot explain it to you because... I'm

stupid. How dumb you are, but they are going to know that it was me.

So it would have more weight if it wasn't anonymous.

How many times have you told me you love your job?

You gotta cause pain, right?

It's gotta hurt.

Take... I don't need 24 hours.

Use my name. I'm on the record.

Zach, I'm taking dinner orders.

Roiled salmon with a nice Dijon A's.

Hamburger.

Uh, guys?

Just come here a second, I want you to meet Francis.

It's Evelyn and Zach, the interns always tell me about.

It's nice to see me.

See you.

Meet you.

I'm sorry, between the school and the internship and... Him? Him.

Yeah, there hasn't been much sleep.

It turns out we ran the same experiment as you.

Fake account, fictional woman named Carol. We got pretty much the same

result. I'm being recruited by the Idaho militia.

We're in the air.

Okay.

Princess.

You're cool.

I think you're mistaken.

I'm not.

Pretty sure I friended Carol.

Everybody, this is Fred.

Francis.

I'm Jeff's editor, Andy Butler.

Hi, Andy. Christina McCann.

Christina. Tom Dash. Good to meet you.

Police. Thank you for coming in to speak with us.

I understand you've been working around the clock for a while.

Uh, yeah, it's like you're interns.

I just need some sleep.

You need some lawyers.

Have you considered seeking whistleblower status?

People don't hire whistleblowers.

Our days in tech would be over. Have you considered it? No.

I have. No, no, no, no. It's one thing to go on the record. She's going to get

sued into small pieces if she doesn't get protective status.

Well, to get whistleblower protection, you need to testify in front of a

federal body.

Congress. In person.

You want to do that?

No. Right. But someone's going to have to explain all of this to them.

I had to explain it all to you.

A lot.

Someone is going to have to explain all of this to them.

Christina, I work for the Wall Street Journal. So my cred as a free market

capitalist is solid. And even I think this needs government intervention.

Congress has to pass some laws pronto.

I would be testifying on television.

Okay, there would be press. We're the press, Jeff. And the internet would have

its way with you.

Or you'll be taken out for a dance.

I know.

Sort of a fitting punishment.

Why do you need to be punished?

You spent the last year telling me to take some responsibility for the code. I

was being manipulative. She pays me to be. Not very much.

Look, Francis... I've already spoken to Whistleblower A. What?

They're going to set me up with the SEC. God damn it.

Hey guys, Francis and I are going to talk alone for a minute.

Your work on this you don't have to say something nice That

nerd in there

she's smarter than any of us she's gonna be fine

This is what it looks like when it's good

Good job, boss.

You guys should really go home.

He probably got a couple hundred documents.

We'll stay and start indexing them.

Evelyn and Zach, I have 21,323 documents.

He's here.

Send him in and then stay.

Jeff. Eddie.

Yeah. Jeff Horowitz.

This whole meeting's off the record. Yeah.

Someday, huh?

As soon as the first protester hit the first cop, I texted my girlfriend and

told her I had to work late because we're going to get blamed for this.

Mark wanted me to give you a message.

Okay. A few months ago, Mark posted a picture of himself riding a hydrofoil.

New York Times said he was riding an electric surfboard, but he wasn't. It

was a hydrofoil.

Mark would like you to get shit, right? I don't work for the New York Times. He

met in general.

That's the bad press that he's worried about right now? No, he's not worried

about that either.

Teddy, as we discuss on the phone... Frances Haugen is your source.

It wasn't hard to trace the footprints.

She didn't have many friends around here.

I wonder if her motives will get questioned.

As we discuss on the phone, the journal is going to publish a series of

investigative pieces. Facebook files?

Yeah. I hate alliteration.

But we have a few questions that we need you to respond to in 72 hours.

You know you ruined that girl's life.

When she gets up in front of Congress, that'll be the last time anyone hears

from her. Maybe she'll get a job at an Apple store.

She's going to be fine. No, she won't be.

And if that girl didn't have immunity, I'd walk her to prison.

Well, she does.

She's going to testify.

Congress to the rescue. That's a pretty analog solution.

Teddy, Jeff.

We're twice as big as the biggest country on Earth.

What I'm frightened of, Congress, we're post-government around here.

Please, please let me quote that.

No. Would it be better if I came back tomorrow?

Give us a sense of the questions.

Why did Facebook shut down the Civic Integrity team?

Why did Facebook ignore FBI warnings last year about QAnon being a threat? We

did it. So that more than 3 million people were members of QAnon Facebook

groups. It's bullshit.

My assistant.

Why did Facebook algorithms promote content that undermined the country's

pandemic response with lies about vaccines?

God damn it.

Anything else?

Just for my own curiosity.

Does Facebook juice the comments under Mark's posts?

You know, I think we should do this tomorrow.

Yeah, that's no problem. I'll arrange it with your office.

But again, insurrection or no insurrection, you've got 72 hours.

I don't know what that fucking girl thinks she's doing.

She's disrupting.

I only have about a minute.

Good morning.

Good morning.

You've been in this room before?

Yeah, I have. They told me this room was used for triage.

They brought Capitol Police officers here on makeshift stretchers after

they'd been beaten and tased.

They replaced the carpet because they couldn't shampoo the blood out.

No gloves.

I didn't want to look like a freak.

Before you go out there, I want to give you some advice.

Okay.

Try not to be mean to the U.S. Senate.

Try, if you can, not to call the Senate stupid. I'm not mean. I am a delightful

person. Sure, I've called you stupid on a number of occasions. But I

do think it's remarkable how far you've gone and how little you have.

iqwise

The testimony before this committee will be the truth, the whole truth, and

nothing but the truth.

You should redeploy the feed boost removals for the October conflict.

Did you turn off break the class?

Election day. The election was over.

Not this one.

on every post that attempts to delegitimize the election.

No ambiguity, no soft language.

We have to say something like the U.S. has laws, protocols.

He just posted a video.

Mark?

Good afternoon, Mr. Chairman, Madam Ranking Member, and members of the

subcommittee.

My name is Frances Haugen.

I used to work for Facebook.

I joined Facebook because I believe it has the potential to bring out the best

in us.

But I'm here today because I believe Facebook's products harm children, stoke

division, and weaken our democracy.

You just posted another video.

This is not a simple matter of certain social media users being angry or

unstable, or about one side being radicalized against the other.

It's about Facebook choosing to grow at all costs, buying its profits with our

health and safety.

Ryan, you need to get the M-Team started on talking points.

Sure. Any suggestions, Brendan?

During my time at Facebook, I came to realize a devastating truth.

Almost no one outside of Facebook knows what happens inside of Facebook.

The documents I have provided to Congress prove that Facebook has

repeatedly misled the public about what its own research reveals.

About the safety of children.

About the efficacy of its artificial intelligence systems.

and its role in spreading divisive and extreme messages.

You've got to say something, Mark.

You've got to say something.

Take it down.

Facebook wants you to believe in a false choice.

That you must choose between extreme and divisive content.

or losing one of the most important values our country was founded on.

Free speech.

When we realized big tobacco was hiding the harms it caused, the government took

action.

When we figured out cars were safer with seat belts, the government took action.

And when we learned that opioids were taking lives,

The government took action.

I implore you.

Take action.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

I'm now happy to answer your questions.

the committee thanks the witness and we stand adjourned