Facebook Often Neglects To Get Rid Of Bot Accounts That Spread Misinformation

ilustrasi Facebook (mage Credit: Krupekk_pl / Pixabay)

JAKARTA - The social media giant Facebook turns out to be quite often ignoring reports from its users. Even this company owned by Mark Zuckerberg rarely eradicate fake accounts or bots that are often used to manipulate information around the world.

The statement was made by Sophie Zhang, a former Facebook employee who was recently fired. In his memo, Zhang, who works as a data scientist at the social network, said that Facebook was very slow to tackle fake accounts that spread false information.

Zhang was tasked with carrying out his own assessment without managerial support, while selecting which important matters would be prioritized with regard to Iraq, Italy, India, El Salvador and many other countries.

"I have encountered many overt attempts by foreign national governments to abuse our platform on a large scale to mislead their own citizens, and cause international news on many occasions," said Zhang as quoted by BuzzFeed News, Tuesday, September 15.

Zhang's monumental workload resulted in many such fake networks escaping his scrutiny, which is the latest example of Facebook's longstanding struggle to stem the spread of misinformation and election interference on its platform.

He found that a series of accounts were inauthentic or in his term were bot accounts used in the opposition campaign to promote Azerbaijan's President Ilham Aliyev. Zhang said in the memo that Facebook did not carry out an investigation into the activity until more than a year after he first reported it.

It also took the company nine months to take action on a campaign involving bot accounts to sway public opinion and promote Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernandez. Zhang said a similar pattern occurred in Bolivia and Ecuador.

As a result of this, of course there were strife in various countries, Zhang stated, "I know my hands are covered in blood now." Apart from that, he had also experienced mental stress and decreased health due to the weight of the strength placed on him in this work.

In fact, according to Zhang, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg only prioritizes networks related to the United States (US) and Western Europe, but other countries are ignored. However, he said that Facebook often prioritizes the company's public image rather than dealing with crucial issues such as political issues that develop on its platform.