From The Poynter Report by senior media writer Tom Jones headlined “Here Come the Facebook Papers”:
It’s social media’s version of the Pentagon Papers — damning internal documents about the damage done by Facebook.
It’s The Facebook Papers.
The internal documents — thousands of them — provided by Facebook whistleblower Frances Haugen are now in the hands of at least 17 major news outlets. So get ready for a deluge of explosive stories about the social media giant. In fact, the flood has already begun. The first media outlets to get the redacted documents include The Associated Press, The Atlantic, Bloomberg, CNN, NBC, The New York Times and The Washington Post.
Here are some of the stories we’ve seen so far:
- The New York Times Ryan Mac and Sheera Frenkel with “Internal Alarm, Public Shrugs: Facebook’s Employees Dissect Its Election Role.”
- NBC News’ Brandy Zadrozny with “‘Carol’s Journey’: What Facebook knew about how it radicalized users.”
- CNN’s Donie O’Sullivan, Tara Subramaniam and Clare Duffy with “Not stopping ‘Stop the Steal:’ Facebook Papers paint damning picture of company’s role in insurrection.”
- The Washington Post’s Craig Timberg, Elizabeth Dwoskin and Reed Albergotti with “Inside Facebook, Jan. 6 violence fueled anger, regret over missed warning signs.”
- The Washington Post’s Cat Zakrzewski, Gerrit De Vynck, Niha Masih and Shibani Mahtani with “How Facebook neglected the rest of the world, fueling hate speech and violence in India.”
- And here’s The AP’s home page for its Facebook Papers.
New York Magazine’s Chas Danner has a good roundup with “What Was Leaked in the Facebook Papers? A guide to the biggest revelations so far.”
That’s just the start. Expect a steady stream of even more stories to come out starting today. CNN’s Donie O’Sullivan tweeted Sunday evening, “Happy Facebook News Bonanza Eve, everyone.”
Axios’ Sara Fischer reported Sunday that Facebook vice president of global affairs Nick Clegg told staff in a memo: “We need to steel ourselves for more bad headlines in the coming days, I’m afraid.”
This happens just as Facebook is expected to change its name, in part, many believe, to begin mending its damaged reputation. But that rebranding might not be able to wash off the stench that is already here and could get worse. Its earning reports will come out today.
On Sunday morning’s “Reliable Sources” on CNN, host Brian Stelter said, “While Facebook gets richer, we all get poorer.”
Facebook Oversight Board member and PEN America CEO Suzanne Nossel, appearing on “Reliable Sources,” told Stelter, “They’ve got to do more to police hatred, vitriol, bullying on the platform, and we’re seeing that coming out in spades through all of these different revelations.”
Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn) was especially harsh, telling Stelter he doubted Facebook’s claims of wanting government regulation for social media. He said, “What we are hearing from Facebook is platitudes and bromides. When it says it wants regulation, at the same time it is fighting that regulation tooth and nail, day and night, with armies of lawyers, millions of dollars in lobbying. And so, I must say, Facebook saying it wants regulation is the height of disingenuousness.”…
Meanwhile, be sure to check out Ben Smith’s latest “Media Equation” column for The New York Times. He goes behind the scenes with Haugen in “Inside the Big Facebook Leak.”
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