Facebook Fact-Checking Tool “Completely Dissolved”

Excuse me while I stand up and do my happy dance!

Things are going badly at Facebook where the latest round of layoffs is ravaging the company.

Sorry, I’m having trouble shedding a single tear.

Here’s the latest:

Tensions are escalating among tech workers at Amazon, Facebook, and Google as layoffs, return-to-office mandates, and other concerns fuel dissatisfaction and unrest. https://t.co/EJbmWMi95k

— Breitbart News (@BreitbartNews) May 25, 2023

And here:

Facebook owner Meta starts final round of layoffs https://t.co/WbshCYc6mJ pic.twitter.com/ekDWJSlgfY

— Reuters (@Reuters) May 24, 2023

But here’s the best part…

According to CNBC, a new Fact-Checking Program has been “completely dissolved” as a result of the job cuts:

Toward the end of 2022, engineers on Meta’s
team combating misinformation were ready to debut a key fact-checking tool that had taken half a year to build. The company needed all the reputational help it could get after a string of crises had badly damaged the credibility of Facebook and Instagram and given regulators additional ammunition to bear down on the platforms.

The new product would let third-party fact-checkers like The Associated Press and Reuters, as well as credible experts, add comments at the top of questionable articles on Facebook as a way to verify their trustworthiness.

But CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s commitment to make 2023 the “year of efficiency” spelled the end of the ambitious effort, according to three people familiar with the matter who asked not to be named due to confidentiality agreements.

Over multiple rounds of layoffs, Meta announced plans to eliminate roughly 21,000 jobs, a mass downsizing that had an outsized effect on the company’s trust and safety work. The fact-checking tool, which had initial buy-in from executives and was still in a testing phase early this year, was completely dissolved, the sources said.

A Meta spokesperson did not respond to questions related to job cuts in specific areas and said in an emailed statement that “we remain focused on advancing our industry-leading integrity efforts and continue to invest in teams and technologies to protect our community.”

Across the tech industry, as companies tighten their belts and impose hefty layoffs to address macroeconomic pressures and slowing revenue growth, wide swaths of people tasked with protecting the internet’s most-populous playgrounds are being shown the exits. The cuts come at a time of increased cyberbullying, which has been linked to higher rates of adolescent self-harm, and as the spread of misinformation and violent content collides with the exploding use of artificial intelligence.

In their most recent earnings calls, tech executives highlighted their commitment to “do more with less,” boosting productivity with fewer resources. Meta, Alphabet
, Amazon
and Microsoft
have all cut thousands of jobs after staffing up rapidly before and during the Covid pandemic. Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella recently said his company would suspend salary increases for full-time employees.

The slashing of teams tasked with trust and safety and AI ethics is a sign of how far companies are willing to go to meet Wall Street demands for efficiency, even with the 2024 U.S. election season — and the online chaos that’s expected to ensue — just months away from kickoff. AI ethics and trust and safety are different departments within tech companies but are aligned on goals related to limiting real-life harm that can stem from use of their companies’ products and services.

“Abuse actors are usually ahead of the game; it’s cat and mouse,” said Arjun Narayan, who previously served as a trust and safety lead at Google and TikTok parent ByteDance, and is now head of trust and safety at news aggregator app Smart News. “You’re always playing catch-up.”

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For now, tech companies seem to view both trust and safety and AI ethics as cost centers.

Twitter effectively disbanded its ethical AI team in November and laid off all but one of its members, along with 15% of its trust and safety department, according to reports. In February, Google cut about one-third of a unit that aims to protect society from misinformation, radicalization, toxicity and censorship. Meta reportedly ended the contracts of about 200 content moderators in early January. It also laid off at least 16 members of Instagram’s well-being group and more than 100 positions related to trust, integrity and responsibility, according to documents filed with the U.S. Department of Labor.

Oh how glorious it is!

Related: the Fact-Checking was all BS anyway:

Facebook fact checkers had to admit in court that their "fact checking" was just opinions.

— illuminatibot (@iluminatibot) April 12, 2023

Here’s more:

Mass Layoffs Hitting Big Tech?

WLTReport warned last week about impending mass layoffs.

BREAKING: Massive New Round Of Layoffs Hits Disney

Although Big Tech has historically been immune, it’s not immune any longer.

Massive layoffs reportedly were coming for Meta (parent company of Facebook).

Meta just told employees its latest round of massive layoffs starts next week https://t.co/P2Xpa1XdUd

— Allan Herman (@allankherman) May 21, 2023

The layoffs have spread beyond Meta/Facebook.

Amazon, Alphabet, and Twitter all reduced the sizes of their teams that target 'online misinformation' and 'hate speech.'

It appears reducing costs has taken precedent for Big Tech companies over 'fact checking' and fighting 'hate speech.'

Big Tech Layoffs Now Hitting Fact-Checkers and People Hired to Fight “Hate Speech” https://t.co/6HAk4PTMVr

— 🇺🇸🇺🇸Josh Dunlap🇺🇲🇺🇲 ULTRA-MAGA (@JDunlap1974) May 28, 2023

Important story by @haydenfield and @JonathanVanian: "Meta, Amazon, Alphabet and Twitter have all drastically reduced the size of their teams focused on internet trust and safety as well as ethics as the companies focus on cost cuts." https://t.co/vB32QWuihb

— Brian Stelter (@brianstelter) May 26, 2023

CNBC reports:

Over multiple rounds of layoffs, Meta announced plans to eliminate roughly 21,000 jobs, a mass downsizing that had an outsized effect on the company’s trust and safety work. The fact-checking tool, which had initial buy-in from executives and was still in a testing phase early this year, was completely dissolved, the sources said.

A Meta spokesperson did not respond to questions related to job cuts in specific areas and said in an emailed statement that “we remain focused on advancing our industry-leading integrity efforts and continue to invest in teams and technologies to protect our community.”

Across the tech industry, as companies tighten their belts and impose hefty layoffs to address macroeconomic pressures and slowing revenue growth, wide swaths of people tasked with protecting the internet’s most-populous playgrounds are being shown the exits. The cuts come at a time of increased cyberbullying, which has been linked to higher rates of adolescent self-harm, and as the spread of misinformation and violent content collides with the exploding use of artificial intelligence.

ADVERTISEMENT

In their most recent earnings calls, tech executives highlighted their commitment to “do more with less,” boosting productivity with fewer resources. Meta, Alphabet, Amazon and Microsoft have all cut thousands of jobs after staffing up rapidly before and during the Covid pandemic. Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella recently said his company would suspend salary increases for full-time employees.

The slashing of teams tasked with trust and safety and AI ethics is a sign of how far companies are willing to go to meet Wall Street demands for efficiency, even with the 2024 U.S. election season — and the online chaos that’s expected to ensue — just months away from kickoff. AI ethics and trust and safety are different departments within tech companies but are aligned on goals related to limiting real-life harm that can stem from use of their companies’ products and services.

As WLTReport noted, massive layoffs have also hit other industries.

Banking, healthcare, and others are letting employees go.

Here's a rundown:

Morgan Stanley (MS.N) is planning to eliminate about 3,000 jobs in the second quarter, a source told Reuters

More: https://t.co/O5gJcHePQc#JobsCut #LayOff #layoffs2023 #layoffs pic.twitter.com/GwnLvKch4Z

— TechnologyPlus.PK (@TechnologyPlusP) May 6, 2023

Ochsner Health announces layoffs across two states amid ongoing financial troubles https://t.co/FIiLVDekbw

— wdsu (@wdsu) May 11, 2023

🚨 Breaking: Brutal layoff of 700 at LinkedIn

The Tech reckoning is here, and it's hitting even the most profitable companies.

(LinkedIn is owned by Microsoft.)

If you work in tech, your job security is a myth.

— Aakash Gupta 🚀 Product Growth Guy (@aakashg0) May 9, 2023

BIG Layoffs in the last two months
-Morgan Stanley 3k
-Tyson Foods 6k
-3M 6k
-Bed Bath Beyond 32k
-Disney/ABC/ESPN 7k
-Ernst & Young 3k
Meanwhile Janet Yellen "Everything is fine" pic.twitter.com/dOXJ2wKLkj

— Scott84HendersonFL1776 (@SangerEatbabies) May 9, 2023

According to reports, Disney is in WAVE THREE of layoffs.

The company cut an additional 2,500 jobs.

BREAKING: Massive New Round Of Layoffs Hits Disney

And it's only going to get worse.

A LOT worse.

But here's the good news: I might be able to help you.

For more on that, keep reading!

If you've been impacted by layoffs, or just got fired....or....if you have a job but it doesn't pay enough, then this is for "YOU".

The layoffs are really getting bad out there.

You may not work at any of those places....

In fact, odds are you probably don't!

But the layoffs start there and then spiral across the country.

And I know many of you reading this have ALREADY been laid off or fired from your job.

Many more are to come.

So....that's why I'm publishing this.

Can I help you?

Very possibly....yes!

In fact, I tell you this because this is MY story.

And deep down it's probably your story too.

You see, it doesn't even have to be a layoff.

It may just be that you're very unhappy with where you're at in life.

Unhappy with your job...

Unhappy with your future prospects....

Not crazy about doing what you're doing for the next 30 years and getting a cheap watch as a gift when you retire.

Oh I have a feeling that my story is going to resonate with you.

You see, I believe deep down we all know we were created ON purpose and FOR a purpose.

A God-given purpose.

Something we were created to do in this world better than anyone else.

Sound crazy?

I don't think so.

I think every single one of us has greatness inside of us...and a calling to live the life God created for us!

Not to live someone else's life.

Definitely not to live a life for your boss or for your job!

How sad is that?

It reminds me of one of my favorite memes:

But as always, there is TRUTH in comedy.

It's what makes comedy funny, because we can all relate to the underlying truth.

So here's where it gets really personal.

I didn't learn that until I was in my 40's.

I wish I'd learned it earlier.

And I'm telling you because maybe I can help YOU learn it earlier in life.

When I started this mission of the WLTReport back in 2015, I was finally doing MY thing.

Not living for someone else...

Not just punching a clock...

Not just moving papers around into a folder in a beige office for 40, 50 or 60 hours a week.

No.

I was finally doing what God created ME to do...and I was changing the world (in my own little way) at the same time.

If you've never been in that position, I can't quite describe it to you but it's magical.

Suddenly, you don't need coffee or extra motivation to get through the day.

Suddenly, when you're living out YOUR purpose you have all this natural energy and "work" doesn't seem like work.

You go from watching and waiting for the clock to hit 5:00 so you can go home to wondering "where did that day go, I could use another 12 hours!"

People ask me all the time how I get so much done around here and they're fearful I'm going to "burn out"...

Nothing could be farther from the case.

And to quote my friend Christopher Greene, "I'd much rather BURN out than RUST out."

Let that one sink in a bit.

I believe in this so much and I believe I can help a lot of people who are reading this so much that I actually recorded this video.

This is me, totally from the heart.

Please enjoy (and then if anything in this video resonates with you, scroll down and I will tell you how I might be able to help you too):

I Had a Job, Once...
👇 pic.twitter.com/fINRaHEOcO

— DailyNoah.com (@DailyNoahNews) April 8, 2023

Backup here on Rumble:

Now, if ANYTHING I said in that video gave you that little shock of adrenaline or that gut feeling that connected with your soul, I want you to keep reading...

I want to be very clear upfront about a couple of things.

One, I'm not trying to sell you anything.

And two, I'm not telling you to quit your job or make any drastic change.

I'm just a guy who finally found how to live for the passion God placed inside of me, and if I can help some other people along the way I want to do it.

Fair?