Meta & Children's Online SafetyWe're currently in the business of disseminating lies
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Case 4:22-md-03047-YGR Document 2757-28 Filed 02/20/26 Page 1 of 27 AMENDED Exhibit 246 PLAINTIFFS' OMNIBUS OPPOSITION TO DEFENDANTS' MOTIONS FOR SUMMARY JUDGMENT Case No.: 4:22-md-03047-YGR MDL No. 3047 In Re: Social Media Adolescent Addiction/Personal Injury Products Liability Litigation Case 4:22-md-03047-YGR Document 2757-28 Filed 02/20/26 Page 2 of 27 Let's Fix Meta Open Group 12.6K members. WHAT IS THE INTENT OF T... See more Join Posts Files Topics More Search group... shared a post. November 9, 2016. I've slowly been souring on our uber metrics driven culture and I think tonight may have been the straw that broke the camel's back. is feeling drained. November 9, 2016 Palo Alto, CA This is obviously a knee jerk reaction based, in large part, on disgust, fear, and disappointment--so take it with a grain of salt I can't help but feel that we, Facebook, bare a large brunt of responsibility for what happened today. Many of you may think I'm referring to the stance we took on Trump's posts (i.e. not labeling them hate speech), but I feel there's a bigger problem than that: metrics. A little over 2 years ago I was one of the people that built the in-app browser on Android. Up until a couple weeks ago I was the tech lead for Instant Articles on Android. Whenever either of these 2 products were talked about we only cared about things like time spent, open links, etc. That's what we optimized for. That's what we used to define success and failure. And that's the problem. Never did we ask ourselves anything about the content itself. Or, more specifically, how that content affected readers. Did we care if the content that we sped up was blatant misinformation? Nope. About Description WHAT IS THE INTENT OF THIS GROUP? To help you find a solution to a company-wide problem and to empower you to help fix i... See more Members (12,561) Topics in this group #UnfollowBias 5 mentions #FreeSpeech 2 mentions #socialmedia 2 mentions #faceworldproblems 2 mentions #disinformation 2 mentions Shared Files "better engineering" is broken Dragos Stefan Dudau November 11, 2020 Notes product going away this Oct :-( Akila Kesavasamy October 14, 2020 2020-06-13-10h38m41s_QuickScan.pdf Bria Hunter June 11, 2020 Did we care whether it stroked the rage of the reader? Nope. Media Did we care if, in our quest to connect the world, the content we were optimizing actually made us more divided? A resounding no. @MKBHD 26m rporate needs to hear this, but you don't just... kill it h What I'm coming to grips with is that we, Facebook, are no less populist than Trump himself. He tells people what they want to hear and it disgusts many of us. But guess what? We tell them what they want to hear too. That needs to stop. → feeling drained. 319 122 Comments 2 Shares ad brand CONFIDENTIAL Like Comment Share 01 food brand etDeck 0 ΜΕΤΑ3047MDL-207-00027495 Document 2757-28 Filed 02/20/26 Page 3 of 27 Case 4:22-md-03047-YGR Thank you for posting this, i've been ruminating on very similar things since i joined. It feels terrible. CONFIDENTIAL Like Reply 5y Edited wish there is a down vote button Like Reply 5y 10 Remember those joke posters, "is this a technology company?" I think we need posters that say "is this a media company?" Like Reply 5y I'm glad you shared this. I've had this thought all evening. Like Reply 5y I'm not sure we want to be in the business of arbitrating fact. Like Reply 5y We're currently in the business of disseminating lies. Like Reply 5y Whose lies? Like Reply 5y These lies http://www.abc.net.au/.../the- surge-of-pro-trump.../8003094 Like Reply 5y ABC.NET.AU The surge of pro-Trump fa... Are those the only lies in existence? Like Reply 5y No, but these are highly optimized to be spread on our platform. Like Reply 5y 10 16 5 52 20 2 4 23 ΜΕΤΑ3047MDL-207-00027496 Case 4:22-md-03047-YGR Document 2757-28 Filed 02/20/26 Page 4 of 27 Not to say that we should try to arbitrate more, but to give an example, I found the following story to be one of the highest CONFIDENTIAL ranked ones in our Elections 2016 center: https://www.facebook.com/Alex an.../videos/10154714375008459 / Like Reply 5y Edited We absolutely are in the business of arbitrating content based on harm, law, popularity, content policy, copyright, hate speech. I don't see how truth is any different. Like Reply 5y Edited Press Enter to post. 3 Yeah yeah, I know something similar, that's called Great Firewall. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Fir ewall Like Reply 5y Edited I like this about FB, we're a blind medium for the world's opinions (in most cases). We may not personally like these opinions, but it's not our responsibility to project our biases on the world. Like Reply 5y Hide 18 Replies 42 52 I don't think this is true - our ranking algorithms prevent us from truly being a blind medium. Sure, people can post and share whatever they want, but we are far more likely to show people only content they will agree with (in the pursuit of metrics), creating an echo chamber. We are incredibly biased in what we present to people - not partisan bias, but biased towards metrics which ensures people's beliefs, whatever they may be, are validated and reinforced. Like Reply 5y 40 ΜΕΤΑ3047MDL-207-00027497 Case 4:22-md-03047-YGR Document 2757-28 Filed 02/20/26 Page 5 of 27 We need to figure out how to balance informedness and metrics 4 Like Reply 5y Well, this is what CONFIDENTIAL people inherently want, this is called confirmation bias. If instead of appealing to them we would try to shape their opinion in any way, we will lose our competitive advantage. Like Reply 5y Although not good for the company, that would probably be better for humanity. I guess the open question is whether there's a way to achieve both, and if not, where do our priorities lie. Like Reply 5y so do we as a company say that this is not something we're interested in caring about? Like Reply 5y "If people want to build a platform based on spreading false information, that's their perogative"? Like Reply 5y Why should we as a company take upon ourselves to decide what is good for humanity? Like Reply 5y we as individuals should try to do good by humanity, and the company is our tool and responsibility. Like Reply 5y We as individuals can do whatever we want to promote the values we believe in our spare time. However, in our work time we should be concentrating to help our company to reach its goals. And most certainly, we should not view the company as a "tool" in our disposal. Like Reply 5y 1 1 1 ΜΕΤΑ3047MDL-207-00027498 Case 4:22-md-03047-YGR Document 2757-28 Filed 02/20/26 Page 6 of 27 if we're building something CONFIDENTIAL harmful, i would like to change that Like Reply 5y if our company doesn't factor that into their goals that is a huge problem Like Reply 5y How do we determine if something is harmful for the society? Like Reply 5y we start researching into how much false information we're spreading and start thinking about this problem instead of saying we're not a media company Like Reply 5y Companies are not unseeing unfeeling things - they are conglomerates of people. It's up to the individuals who make up the company to make sure the company's goals are in line with their goals. If the majority of the people at the company disagree, or if management disagrees, then it's entirely reasonable for those dissenting individuals to leave the company. Like Reply 5y facebook is here and a part of our lives. i hope that we can actually change this instead of the good people just leaving, though i'm finding it very hard. Like Reply 5y Sorry but this is an argument for majoritarianism, To truly preserve diversity, we have to hear the voices of the minority as well. Like Reply 5y Noah Cantor I don't follow, I'm not suggesting we ignore the voices of the minority. Happy to take this discussion offline if you want to chat further. 2 1 1 1 1 1 1 ΜΕΤΑ3047MDL-207-00027499 Document 2757-28 Filed 02/20/26 Page 7 of 27 Case 4:22-md-03047-YGR Like Reply 5y Also, I'm not suggesting leaving the company should be a person's first action. I'm just saying that if a company's goals are not in line with a person's beliefs, it's an entirely valid form of protest to leave. There's more chance of changing a company from within, but if change doesn't occur, leaving is still an option. Like Reply 5y Reply to C Press Enter to post. After interviewing some of my family and friends from my home state of Alabama, I heard a lot of "I just read Facebook headlines" and very few facts, research, detailed reasons to back up their beliefs Like Reply 5y "That needs to stop." -- How? In particular, what do you plan to do about it? Like Reply 5y I don't know yet, but the first step in fixing it is admitting that we have a problem. Like Reply 5y yes mostly i get upset when the conversation is shut down with "Well we don't want to arbitrate facts". It's a conversation we need to start having internally, as there's obviously no easy solutions. 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