WEBVTT

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(futuristic industrial music)

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- The Facebook Papers
consists of thousands

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of internal Meta documents,
research, and communications

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leaked by whistleblower

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and former Facebook product
manager, Francis Haugen.

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Collectively the documents represent

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really one of the single largest,

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most significant leaks in all
of Silicon Valley history.

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And they provide a pretty good glimpse

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into the inner mechanisms of
Meta and its suite of apps,

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which have billions of
users all across the world.

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So these documents were first reported on

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by the Wall Street Journal last year

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and eventually made their way

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to the Senate Commerce Subcommittee

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during a hearing with Francis Haugen.

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Gizmodo was one of about 300
different Western media outlets

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that got access to the documents,

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but we are so far the only ones

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that have decided to make them public.

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So we collectively believe

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in releasing many of the
documents to the public

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because we see them in the
public's best interests.

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For years, academics and activists

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have really bemoaned
Facebook's restrictive attitude

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towards its data transparency

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and really the company's
at times punitive response

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towards independent researchers.

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That being said,

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the thousands of documents
we're combing through

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include a fair amount
of personal information

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and other sensitive details

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we feel should be approached with care.

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To do this right,

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we've partnered with legal
and academic partners

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from NYU, UMass Amherst,
Columbia, Marquette, and the ACLU

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to establish guidelines

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and ensure we're able
to release the documents

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without endangering the privacy

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or the safety of Facebook employees

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or really anyone else
who might get caught up

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in this giant ocean of documents.

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Much of that process
involves redacting material

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or names that were
missed by Senate staffers

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who did the original round of redactions.

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The document topic areas are immense,

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so we've decided to break them up

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into multiple area-specific drops.

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Our first launch focused in
on Facebook's internal efforts

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and at times confusion

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around preventing political misinformation

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ahead of the 2020 elections.

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That drop also covered the
blistering fallout at Facebook

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in the days and the weeks
after the January 6th attacks

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on the Capitol building

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and Facebook's decision to
suspend Donald Trump's account.

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Our second and third drops
focus on technical details

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around Meta's ranking algorithm,

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as well as Facebook's newsfeed.

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Future documents will discuss
Facebook's internal dissent

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over climate change moderation procedures,

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the company's attempts to
navigate COVID-19 misinformation

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amid a raging pandemic,
and much, much more.

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To read more about the Facebook Papers,

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check out gizmodo.com.