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Facebook 'took a page from Big Tobacco' to make website 'addictive', ex-executive alleges

Facebooks former director of monetization has said he worked to make the company addictive by taking a page from Big Tobaccos playbook.

Mr Kendall compares Facebook to tobacco companies, which added sugar and menthol to cigarettes so that users could continue to smoke for longer periods.

Mr Kendall also said that Facebooks algorithms rewired users brains in order to maximise attention and, by extension, profits.

Extreme, incendiary contentthink shocking images, graphic videos, and headlines that incite outragesowed tribalism and division, he wrote.

In May, Facebook executives reportedly took the decision to end research that would make the social media site less polarising for fears that it would unfairly target right-wing users.

When it comes to spreading extremist views and propaganda, these services have content moderation toolsbut the tools can never seem to keep up, despite these companies having billions of dollars at their disposal, Kendall said.

Facebook, its subsidiary Instagram, and many other social networking sites have been criticised for not moderating content effectuively.

Facebooks algorithm was found to be pushing holocaust denial, while Instagrams algorithm was denounced for pushing young girls down a rabbit-hole of self-harm images.

The law shields any website or service that hosts content - like news outlets' comment sections, video services like YouTube and social media services like Facebook and Twitter - from lawsuits over content posted by users.

A Facebook engineer had resigned one week previously, saying the social media giant was profiting off hate in the US and globally.

Original article
Author: The Independent

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