We can’t move on - we can’t be gaslit, we can’t let Facebook trade access to the future to change the narrative. Time dropped a new bombshell report overnight on Facebook and India that is a must-read. It’s by Billy Perrigo who has been doing incredible accountability work. /1
Some of the reporting connects back to the whistleblower documents that should still be very much front and center leading to more reporting. Yes, they knew it broke their own policies, more on that at the end. /2 
The incidents and videos cited in the Time report have massive numbers of views and absolutely horrific examples of hate and inciting violence many of which have been promoted and provided viral velocity and reach by Facebook’s platform. /3
At India’s scale, WSJ’s prior reporting of conflicts of internet with their government and Facebook’s dependency on the region for growth, the numbers are absolutely frightening scale combined with Facebook’s algorithmic amplification putting profits first. /4
It’s almost as if Facebook doesn’t connect its amplification and reach velocity to the heightened risk on the platform. Any responsible actor would insert speed bumps and friction bringing in human review. Instead Facebook inserted white lists as we already learned. /5
Instead we see very familiar statements like this in the reporting, “Facebook only removed the video of Saraswati calling for Hindus to eradicate Muslims after TIME asked about it in late October.” /6
Here is another one inside the same report. Very familiar to journalists: “Facebook said it was carrying out a review of the pages after TIME asked the company about Manuvie’s complaint.” /7
Side note: it’s remarkable Perrigo knows Facebook is a “tier one” nation yet Facebook’s Global Safety Director who works for a guy who works for Joel Kaplan didn’t know same classification for the UK last week when testifying to - wait for it - the UK Online Safety Committee. /8
The kicker is at the very end of this Time report which builds on prior reporting at WSJ. “The Journal reported in 2020 that Facebook had chosen not to ban the Bajrang Dal, citing risk to Facebook’s business prospects in India.” /9
I highly recommend taking the time to read the entire report from @billyperrigo. Every word matters. He and his team are doing outstanding work. time.com/6112549/facebo… /10
I’ll add a connection to end of this thread earlier. Facebook is in a PR and policy war right now. If you’re treating not building off what we already know, you’re working vs accountability, civil society. If you’re doing footsie interviews with them, you’re trading access. /11
https://twitter.com/jason_kint/status/1455522705466396678
I’m going to add this thread here from last august and the report from @JeffHorwitz @newley as it’s directly relevant and fairly recent on Facebook India. /12
https://twitter.com/jason_kint/status/1294415549364084736
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