Keywords: Senate Commerce, Science,and Transportation Subcommittee on Consumer Protection, Product Safety, and Data Security

Facebook wants to trick you into thinking that privacy protections or changes to Section 230 alone will be sufficient. While important, these will not get to the core of the issue — which is that no one truly understands the destructive choices made by Facebook except Facebook. We can afford nothing less than full transparency. As long as Facebook is operating in the shadows, hiding its research from public scrutiny, it is unaccountable. Until the incentives change, Facebook will not change. Left alone, Facebook will continue to make choices that go against the common good — our common good. […] At other large tech companies like Google, any independent researcher can download from the Internet the company’s search results and write papers about what they find — and they do!

Frances Haugen, Former Facebook Product Manager (via C-SPAN, ca. 10:32 – 10:34 am EST [ https://www.c-span.org/video/?c4980406/whistleblower-frances-haugen-calls-congress-regulate-facebook ] )

For more about recommendation systems, see e.g. Google Campaigns Against Donald Trump’s Re-Election in 2020 Campaign as President of USA (vs Joe Biden) & YouTube Recommendations: Platform for Influencers without Responsibility.