Thread by @DrDenaGrayson

‼️#Facebook programmed its algorithm that decides what people see in their news feeds to push content likely to make them ANGRY, treating ANGRY emoji reactions 5x more valuable than “likes.”

Anger kept users more engaged, making #Facebook more money.🤬

washingtonpost.com/technology/202…

#Facebook’s researchers warned that favoring “controversial” posts—including those making users angry—could open “the door to more spam/abuse/clickbait.”

2 yrs later, posts that sparked ANGRY reaction emoji were more likely to have disinformation, toxicity and low-quality news🙄

“Anger and hate is the easiest way to grow on #Facebook,” testified whistleblower @FrancesHaugen to British Parliament.

https://twitter.com/drdenagrayson/status/1452962570487406596

So for at least 3 years, #Facebook PURPOSELY and systematically amped up some of the worst, most hateful content of its platform, making it *more prominent* in users’ feeds and *spreading it to a much wider* audience.🤬

#DeleteFacebook

‼️An experiment in 2014 sought to manipulate the emotional weight of posts shown in users’ feeds to be more positive or more negative, and then watch to see if users’ posts changed to match.

#Facebook DID NOT GET CONSENT to mess with people’s minds and manipulate their emotions.

🚨🚨Mark #Zuckerberg **encouraged users in a public reply to a user’s comment to use the angry reaction** to signal they disliked something, although that would **make #Facebook show similar content more often**.

Zuckerberg purposely ANGERED people to line his pockets.🤬

Replies to a post were weighted even higher, up to 30x as much as a like. #Facebook’s greater emphasis on comments, replies to comments and replies to re-shares further incentivized divisive political posts.

#Facebook knowingly divided us for PROFIT.🤬

wsj.com/articles/faceb…

#Facebook’s data scientists found that angry reactions were “much more frequent” on problematic posts: “civic low quality news, civic misinfo, civic toxicity, health misinfo, and health ANTIVAX content,” and showed the angry reaction was “being weaponized” by political figures.💥

#Facebook wanted to encourage users to stream live video, so its weight could go as high as 600x a “like,” helping cause “ultra-rapid virality for several low quality viral videos.” Live videos played a big role in political events, including the #January6thInsurrection.🤬

When #Facebook finally set the weight on the angry reaction to zero, users began to get less misinformation, less “disturbing” content and less “graphic violence,” and users’ level of activity on Facebook was UNAFFECTED.

Those greedy idiots angered & divided us for NOTHING.🤬