NEW YORK
\nCalling for companies in the tech industry to show more restraint, former Google chief executive Eric Schmidt has said that Facebook\u2019s conduct, revealed in leaked documents, is \u201cpretty concerning.\u201d
\nFacebook, now known as Meta Platforms, \u201cwent a little too far on the revenue side and not enough on the judgement side\u201d, Schmidt told Bloomberg Television. \u201cYou can see that from the Facebook leaks that have been occurring.\u201d
\nThe documents \u2013 shared with the US Securities and Exchange Commission and Congress by whistle-blower Frances Haugen and obtained by the Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg and other media outlets \u2013 show that Meta struggled to contain hate speech and misinformation.
\nThey also revealed that the company\u2019s staff, including internal researchers, faulted it for failing to stop the proliferation of groups that fomented the US Capitol attack on January 6. And internal studies identified the potential risks of its Instagram photo-sharing app for teenage girls. The company, valued at $934 billion, rebranded itself as Meta last month.
\n\u201cThe disturbing thing is that people said a long time ago that Facebook was doing this, but people said, \u2018well, they didn\u2019t understand or they didn\u2019t measure it\u2019,\u201d Schmidt said. \u201cAnd what we learnt in those disclosures is that these companies \u2013 and Facebook in particular \u2013 knew what it was doing.\u201d
\nStill, Schmidt said he opposes trying to regulate the tech industry. \u201cThe regulation is always either too soon or too late,\u201d he said.
\nSchmidt, who was chief executive and chairman of Google from 2001 to 2011 and executive chairman of the company until 2018, said: \u201cWhat I would rather have is sort of proper industrial restraint,\u201d he said.
\nThe company\u2019s rebranding move to Meta speaks to a new emphasis on building a metaverse \u2013 a virtual-reality social space that would eventually take over from the web and app social services of today. Meta said it will also seek to renew its appeal to younger users, with chief executive Mark Zuckerberg saying executives will \u201cmake serving young adults their North Star, rather than optimising for the larger number of older people\u201d.
\nMs Haugen, a former employee, testified last month before a panel of the Senate Commerce Committee. At the hearing, she criticised the company for not prioritising the well-being of its users over profits. Mr Zuckerberg has denied the characteristics, saying they\u2019re \u201cjust not true\u201d.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
NEW YORK Calling for companies in the tech industry to show more restraint, former Google chief executive Eric Schmidt has said that Facebook\u2019s conduct, revealed in leaked documents, is \u201cpretty concerning.\u201d Facebook, now known as Meta Platforms, \u201cwent a little too far on the revenue side and not enough on the judgement side\u201d, Schmidt told […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":225710,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15,6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-225687","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-technology","category-world"],"yoast_head":"\n