Former Facebook exec: We made it as addictive as cigarettes on purpose
This month when a man killed himself on Facebook.
Facebook’s former director of monetization says Facebook intentionally made its product as addictive as cigarettes — and now he fears it could cause ‘civil war’
- A former Facebook director lashed out at the company’s business model during testimony before Congress on Thursday, saying Facebook’s focus on driving engagement outweighs its consideration of potential harms.
- In his prepared remarks before a House committee hearing, Facebook’s former director of monetization Tim Kendall said Facebook “took a page from Big Tobacco’s playbook, working to make our offering addictive at the outset.”
- Now, Kendall says he’s worried Facebook is contributing to extremism in the US and is “pushing ourselves to the brink of a civil war.”
Facebook is contributing to extremism in the US and is “pushing ourselves to the brink of a civil war.”
https://futurism.com/the-byte/former-facebook-employee-addictive-cigarettes
Facebook’s former head of monetization, Tim Kendall, unloaded on the social media giant during a hearing about social media’s role in spreading extremist content — saying that his former employer, like big tobacco companies, worked to make its product as addictive as possible.
“We sought to mine as much attention as humanly possible,” he said. “We took a page from Big Tobacco’s playbook, working to make our offering addictive at the outset.”