“I have blood on my hands”: a whistleblower says Facebook ignored global political manipulation

Facebook ignored or was slow to act on evidence that fake accounts on its platform have been undermining elections and political affairs around the world, according to an explosive memo sent by a recently fired Facebook employee and obtained by BuzzFeed News.

The 6,600-word memo, written by former Facebook data scientist Sophie Zhang, is filled with concrete examples of heads of government and political parties in Azerbaijan and Honduras using fake accounts or misrepresenting themselves to sway public opinion. In countries including India, Ukraine, Spain, Brazil, Bolivia, and Ecuador, she found evidence of coordinated campaigns of varying sizes to boost or hinder political candidates or outcomes, though she did not always conclude who was behind them.

Facebook needs to be investigated, broken up, and its executives prosecuted. I don't care who does it - the United States, the European Union - but it's clear this company is one of the very worst excesses of the tech industry's arrogance and dominance, and it needs to be held accountable.