NL Interview: Facebook whistleblower on how the company favours those in power

Last November, in an interview with Newslaundry, data scientist and former Facebook employee Sophie Zhang described the social media company’s reluctance to act against fake accounts in India.

Now, in this interview with Chitranshu Tewari, Sophie explains how she had offered to testify before India’s parliamentary standing committee on information, and why she shared documentation on her work on India with local journalists and media houses.

Sophie says Facebook chose not to take action on “inauthentic networks” linked to Vinod Sonkar, a BJP MP from Uttar Pradesh. “Facebook rules favour whoever is in power,” she says. “IT cells drown out the voice of the common man.”

Sophie also describes the inherent “conflict” in the role played by Facebook’s public policy teams.

Watch.

Listen to the interview here: