I was only 28 when I discovered the Azerbaijani network. I spoke no Azeri, had never been within a thousand miles of the country, and didn't know who Ilham Aliyev was without Google.

The Azeri government was still incompetent enough to be caught.

theguardian.com/technology/202…
I do want to highlight Facebook's response

Facebook PR implies that I'm lying - but can't find any mistakes with my details. They left the recidivists to return for months, but did a takedown as soon as it entered the press.

Yet more proof that FB prioritizes PR over integrity.
To any Azeri readers,

I can only imagine how saddening this must be for you. Not only does your government manipulate and harass you, they were utterly incompetent at it as well.

Even a small child knows to hide when they act badly. Aliyev must have been too spoiled to learn.
The saddest thing about this case was how the incentives aligned for Facebook to stop caring.

Because it was so large, the company was reluctant to spend time investigating.

Because Azerbaijan was a dictatorship, there was no urgency felt to protect elections.
Azerbaijan does have official elections. But in practice, it's so democratic that in 2013 they accidentally released partial election results a day before the actual election.

I wish I were joking.
cnbc.com/2013/10/10/aze…
To the Azeri government: How much of Azerbaijan's national wealth and treasure was wasted on not just repressing its own citizens, but doing so *incompetently*?

How many Azeris died from COVID because Aliyev funded his trolls instead of health care? Even one would be too many!
To any Armenians reading:

I know many of you have had great interest in this case. But everything I saw in Azerbaijan was focused entirely on domestic repression, rather than anything abroad.

Dictatorships are rarely overthrown from outside. Aliyev fears most his own people.
In the end, FB has again shown its incompetence. Plenty of these fake pages are still up.

From outside, a full tally is almost impossible. Internally, it only takes a minute or two. I know - I wrote the systems to do so, taught others how to use them.

But FB doesn't care.

• • •

Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to force a refresh
 

Keep Current with Sophie Zhang(张学菲)

Sophie Zhang(张学菲) Profile picture

Stay in touch and get notified when new unrolls are available from this author!

Read all threads

This Thread may be Removed Anytime!

PDF

Twitter may remove this content at anytime! Save it as PDF for later use!

Try unrolling a thread yourself!

how to unroll video
  1. Follow @ThreadReaderApp to mention us!

  2. From a Twitter thread mention us with a keyword "unroll"
@threadreaderapp unroll

Practice here first or read more on our help page!

More from @szhang_ds

13 Apr
I was naïve and silly when I caught Honduran President @JuanOrlandoH red-handed. I thought I'd hand it over, the right teams would take care of it, and I could get back to my actual job.
Instead, it was the beginning of a Sisyphean 2-year struggle (1/6)
theguardian.com/technology/202…
FB wasn't too surprised at the revelation. When I presented the situation to public policy leaders in 2018, one of them explained that he'd already been told socially by Hernandez's political consultants that they used troll farms.

That should have been my first red flag. (2/6)
But to me this was shocking. I was only half a year into a low-level DS job. I spoke no Spanish, had never visited Latin America, knew nothing about who this Juan Orlando Hernandez chap was until I Googled him.

I still caught him red-handed. He didn't care to hide. (3/6)
Read 6 tweets
12 Apr
Facebook has many slogans. Employees were taught to #BeOpen, to #FocusOnImpact and #BuildSocialValue. We were told that #NothingAtFacebookIsSomeoneElsesProblem and asked #WhatWouldYouDoIfYouWerentAfraid.

I finally put all these into practice today. (1/8)

theguardian.com/technology/202…
Of course, Facebook would never congratulate me for doing so. But at the end of the day, each company only believes in its slogans up to the point of self-interest.
I joined FB because I'd naively hoped to fix the company from within. I am coming forward, because I failed. (2/8)
Please do not harass or single out any employees in the narratives just published. I am not looking for firings or scapegoats.
But the most insidious aspect of broken systems is the way they ensnare ordinary individuals into complicity. The problems w/ FB go up to the top. (3/8)
Read 10 tweets

Did Thread Reader help you today?

Support us! We are indie developers!


This site is made by just two indie developers on a laptop doing marketing, support and development! Read more about the story.

Become a Premium Member ($3/month or $30/year) and get exclusive features!

Become Premium

Too expensive? Make a small donation by buying us coffee ($5) or help with server cost ($10)

Donate via Paypal Become our Patreon

Thank you for your support!

Follow Us on Twitter!