Whistleblower reveals internal Facebook tools which track users and coordinate censorship with Twitter and Google
A former Facebook employee has lifted the lid on two internal tools used by the company to track users across the internet and to coordinate with Twitter and Google over what content should be censored across the platforms.
The whistleblower presented his revelations to Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo, who in turn pressed Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg on the allegations before the US senate.
Hawley spoke of two tools. Firstly, Centra is a tool that is used by Facebook to track users not just on its platform but across the whole internet, from profiles visited, message recipients, linked accounts, and websites visited that have Facebook buttons
“Centra also uses behavioral data to monitor users’ accounts, even if those accounts are registered under a different name,” Crawley stated, before showing the screenshot below.
Secondly, there is Tasks, an internal platform used to coordinate censorship with Twitter and Google. It allows Facebook employees to communicate between each other about their projects, which includes its ‘community well-being team’, ‘integrity team’, and ‘hate speech engineering team’ to discuss which users, hashtags, and websites would be banned from the site.
Hawley also provided a screenshot of Tasks, and went on to reveal how the tool is used in coordination with other Big Tech platforms.
“What particularly intrigued me is that the platform reflects censorship input from Google and Twitter as well. As I understand it, Facebook censorship teams communicate with their counterparts at Twitter and Google and then enter in those company’s suggestions on the Tasks platform so that Facebook can then follow up with them and effectively coordinate their censorship efforts,” he stated.
Zuckerberg responded by admitting that Facebook uses the Tasks tool for “people coordinating all kinds of work across the company,” and added that the company did indeed coordinate on and share signals on security-related topics, but claims he wasn’t aware of the names of either tool.
Facebook later confirmed to FOX Business that the Tasks tool had been used as a company-wide to-do list, and that the company has been open about working with other organizations to address security concerns, though Twitter and Google did not comment.
Under oath, Zuckerberg admits @Facebook DOES have “tools” to track its users across the internet, across platforms, across accounts – all without user knowledge. I ask how many times this tool has been used domestically against Americans. Zuck won’t say
— Josh Hawley (@HawleyMO) November 17, 2020
