Despite repeated reminders, Facebook refuses to acknowledge the problem, says Sophie Zhang
New Delhi:
A former data scientist at Facebook has claimed that the social networking giant took selective action against fake accounts in last year’s Delhi elections. Sophie Zhang, now a whistleblower, alleged that BJP, Congress and Aam Aadmi Party used fake accounts to influence elections, however, only the network of accounts directly linked to the BJP MP was not removed by Facebook. had gone.
“We removed four out of the five networks, but the fifth – at the last moment, before we were taking it down, we realized that it was connected as a BJP politician, Lok Sabha member and as They realized that, I didn’t get an answer from anyone about what was being done with this network of fake accounts,” Ms Zhang, who worked with Facebook for three years until last month, told NDTV.
Ms Zhang said she found four fake networks at the end of 2019, two of which supported the BJP and the other two backed the Congress. “We took down three networks, two Congress, one BJP network. We were about to take down the last network, but suddenly they stopped because they realized that the fourth network was directly, personally run by a BJP politician and That was the network. That I wasn’t able to do anything.”
A month later, in January 2020, Ms Zhang claimed she had discovered a network of “thousands of accounts” being used to spread pro-AAP political messages and accounts portraying themselves as BJP supporters. Those who voted for PM Modi and were opting to support AAP in the Delhi election for the “clear purpose of winning over other BJP supporters”.
He said this fifth network was shut down by the end of January.
“The only case in which we knew who was responsible was a BJP politician whom I could not take down,” she said.
The whistleblower said that despite repeated reminders, Facebook also refused to acknowledge the problem.
Facebook said they “fundamentally disagree with Ms. Zhang’s characterization about our priorities and efforts to root out abuse on our platform” and added that they aggressively go after abuse around the world. And on this task focus special teams.
“We have already removed more than 150 networks of coordinated inauthentic behavior. About half of them were domestic networks that operated in countries around the world, including India. Combatting coordinated inauthentic behavior is our priority. We are also addressing this. There are problems with spam and fake engagement, a Facebook spokesperson said. We investigate each issue before taking action or making public claims about them.
The statement, however, does not provide any clarity, especially on alleged attempts to influence Delhi elections or not taking action against fake accounts linked to the BJP MP on Facebook.
Facebook has been facing scrutiny in India since the Wall Street Journal reported in August 2020 that the company’s senior executive Ankhi Das protested the company’s application of hate speech rules on people and pages affiliated with the BJP. Facebook employees also questioned the company about how it handles political content in the country, which is its largest market – bigger than the US – with more than 328 million users.
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