Thousands of internal documents from Facebook released by whistleblower Frances Haugen have provided undeniable evidence that Facebook’s engagement-based ranking system is knowingly causing harm to our societies and to vulnerable groups such as children and young girls. Despite this knowledge, Facebook has not taken any action to remedy these harms, consistently prioritising profit at the expense of users’ safety.
In this Joint Statement, Access Now, ARTICLE 19, EPD, and Panoptykon Foundation call upon the Members of the European Parliament to take action and ensure that the Digital Services Act goes to the core of the problem of online platforms’ harmful impact on democratic values and individual wellbeing by democratising recommender systems and preventing further abuses of power.
