Whistleblower group says Meta misled buyers over misinformation | Engadget

Whistleblower Aid says it has filed complaints with the Securities and Exchange Commission that accuse Meta of deceptive buyers about efforts to mitigate local weather change and COVID-19 misinformation throughout its platforms. The nonprofit, which represents Meta whistleblower Frances Haugen, claimed the corporate made “material misrepresentations and omissions in statements to investors” over the way it was dealing with misinformation, in keeping with The Washington Post, which considered redacted copies of the paperwork.

“The documents shared with the SEC make it totally clear that Facebook was saying one thing in private and another in public regarding its approach to climate change and COVID-19 misinformation,” Whistleblower Aid senior counsel Andrew Bakaj instructed Engadget. “That’s not just irresponsible to the public, it’s actively misleading investors who have a legal right to truthful answers from the company.”

In one of many filings, which had been based on disclosures by Haugen, Whistleblower Aid reportedly claimed that Meta did not have a transparent coverage on local weather change misinformation till final yr. The grievance alleges that such misinformation was plentiful on Facebook, regardless of assertions from executives to buyers that the corporate was dedicated to battling the “global crisis,” in keeping with The Post.

In the opposite grievance, the nonprofit reportedly cited inside paperwork displaying that COVID-19 misinformation and vaccine hesitancy proliferated on Facebook. That’s regardless of Meta executives making public feedback about measures it was taking to stem the unfold of COVID-19 misinformation.

Since 2020, Meta has provided factual details about COVID-19 and local weather change in its info facilities.

The firm has lengthy struggled to stem the circulate of misinformation on Facebook and its different platforms. Documents equipped to information organizations by Haugen final yr led credence to critics’ arguments that the corporate places income earlier than consumer security. In September, it was reported that the corporate gave misinformation researchers incomplete information.

“We’ve directed more than 2 billion people to authoritative public health information and continue to remove false claims about vaccines, conspiracy theories and misinformation,” Meta spokesperson Drew Pusateri told Engadget. “We’ve also created our Climate Science Center in over 150 countries to connect people to factual and up-to-date climate information, while also partnering with independent fact checkers to address false claims. There are no one-size-fits-all solutions to stopping the spread of misinformation, but we’re committed to building new tools and policies to combat it.”