Opinion: Facebook having unhealthy effects

The Wall Street Journal should be lauded for putting Facebook on trial in the court of public opinion.

The newspaper is exposing one of the biggest issues facing America today — our ability to discern hard truths from the destructive nature of misinformation.

In a series of recent articles, the Journal is using internal Facebook documents to expose how the social media platform is hurting its consumers. It’s even drawing comparisons between Big Tech and Big Tobacco, it’s that harsh.

Or so I read from other sources. I couldn’t find a way to read the Journal’s series online without subscribing, which I’m not going to do for a single series I’m interested in reading. A one-time fee, maybe, but not a subscription to a newspaper I have only a passing respect for.

So, instead, I’ve read reviews on the WSJ report by other media outlets. In other words, I’m getting my information from other news sites that give their online content away; they use other means to make money off my eyeballs on their website.

I turned to the websites of Time magazine, CNN Business, and FOX Business to verify what I think I already knew about the damaging effects of Facebook.

Here are a few of the things the Journal’s investigative reporting turned up:

• Facebook and Instagram, which Facebook owns, make “body image issues worse for one in three teen girls,” according to Facebook’s own research.

What’s more, the Journal reported that Facebook’s own research has found that teenagers blame Instagram for an increase in anxiety and depression.

But Facebook has made it a point to cite other studies that suggest there’s little correlation between social media use and depression.

• Facebook isn’t the neutral platform it proposes to be. The WSJ report refers to a “whitelisting” practice that gives politicians, celebrities and other big names more latitude in what they post. The newspaper quotes an internal Facebook document that says, “Unlike the rest of our community, (those on the whitelist) can violate our standards without any consequences.”

And instead of improving its news feed algorithms to give greater weight to “meaningful social interactions,” as Mark Zuckerberg said they were doing in 2018, a group of data experts found that “misinformation, toxicity and violent content” were dominating the “reshares” on Facebook.

In other words, Facebook has been amplifying divisive content as a way to keep eyeballs on its platform. And, of course, catching and keeping our attention is how social media platforms make their money.

“Our approach has had unhealthy side effects on important slices of public content, such as politics and news,” Facebook’s own data scientists have written. “This is an increasing liability.”

A liability? Really, is that all? Geez, the misinformation alone has been enough to shake the foundations of our democratic processes.

Frankly, none of these “findings” surprise me; perhaps you’ve suspected as much yourself. What started out as a wonderful way to connect with friends and family has devolved into the world’s biggest news site that actually places more weight on sensational misinformation than it does on fact-based and truthful information.

Tom McDonald is editor of the New Mexico Community News Exchange. Contact him at:

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