Joe Henderson: Facebook played everyone for chumps

Image via AP.

When Facebook launched 17 years ago, it seemed like a good way to catch up with old friends and post soothing cat videos. I’m particularly partial to sharing a photo or two (or 50) of my grandson.

Little did any of us realize back then, though, that what Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg really created is a modern-day version of Big Brother that is always watching, manipulating, and warping truth to its own reality.

As we learned in an explosive “60 Minutes” interview with whistleblower Frances Haugen, Facebook’s game plan is conflict. The company’s algorithm is designed to make you hate your neighbor, or at least your neighbor who might have a different political outlook.

Haugen was a former product manager at Facebook until May of this year, and she held nothing back. She backs up her accusations with thousands of pages of internal Facebook research that show the company knew exactly what it was doing.

“The thing I saw at Facebook over and over again was there were conflicts of interest between what was good for the public and what was good for Facebook,” she told interviewer Scott Pelly.

“And Facebook, over and over again, chose to optimize for its own interests, like making more money.”

The more you hate, the more cash goes into the company’s pockets through targeted advertising to reinforce why you are right, and everyone else is not just wrong; they’re evil.

There’s gold in those seeds of division. Facebook’s value is north of $1 trillion, and Forbes said Zuckerberg has a net worth of $97 billion (with a b).

That’s more than the Gross Domestic Product of 146 countries.

This issue, strange as it sounds, might actually help Florida Democrats and Republicans come together. Everyone is a victim of manipulation.

Haugen’s central point was that Facebook and many political operatives both know that users won’t spend much time on the story without spicy and outrageous content. Time is money.

“Facebook has realized that if they change the algorithm to be safer, people will spend less time on the site, they’ll click on less ads, they’ll make less money,” Haugen said.

That conflict helped incite the insurrection at the U.S. Capitol and the genocide of minorities in Myanmar.

The Washington Post reported that left-wing groups adopted similar social media tactics as some White supremacists. That might have contributed to riots in Seattle and Portland.

“The version of Facebook that exists today is tearing our societies apart and causing ethnic violence around the world,” Haugen said.

Gov. Ron DeSantis last week directed Secretary of State Laurel Lee to investigate if Facebook’s “whitelisted” system gave incumbents an advantage in Florida elections.

According to documents the newspaper reviewed, the Wall Street Journal reported that high-profile “VIP” users, including some political figures, were exempt from Facebook content guidelines.

In other words, they could basically say whatever they wanted — true or otherwise. That privilege wasn’t available to all candidates, though, creating an advantage for the incumbent.

Haugen admitted she was a source for that story, too.

DeSantis and many Republicans have had Facebook and other social media outlets in their sights for a long time. They claim, with some merit, that the regulations governing companies like Facebook are too loose.

In the name of profit, Facebook manipulates everyone who goes to its site. The result is chaos, distrust, and division. The direction in which we’re heading is not sustainable.

Facebook played us for chumps.