Hid Efforts to Hook Users Ex-Insider Says Facebook

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Transcript of Hid Efforts to Hook Users Ex-Insider Says Facebook

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WASHINGTON — A formerFacebook product manager whoturned into a whistle-blower gavelawmakers an unvarnished lookinto the inner workings of theworld’s largest social network onTuesday and detailed how thecompany was deliberate in its ef-forts to keep people — includingchildren — hooked to its service.

In more than three hours of tes-timony before a Senate subcom-mittee, Frances Haugen, whoworked on Facebook’s civic misin-formation team for nearly twoyears until May, spoke candidlyand with a level of insight that thecompany’s executives have rarelyprovided. She said Facebook hadpurposely hidden disturbing re-search about how teenagers feltworse about themselves after us-ing its products and how it waswilling to use hateful content onits site to keep users coming back.

Ms. Haugen also gave lawmak-ers information on what otherdata they should ask Facebook for,which could then lead to proposalsto regulate the Silicon Valley giantas it increasingly faces questionsabout its global reach and power.

“I’m here today because I be-lieve Facebook’s products harmchildren, stoke division and weak-en our democracy,” Ms. Haugen,37, said during her testimony.“The company’s leadershipknows how to make Facebook andInstagram safer but won’t makethe necessary changes.”

After years of congressionalhearings on Facebook and otherlarge tech companies, Ms. Hau-gen’s appearance stood out notonly for the inside look but for theway she united Republican andDemocratic lawmakers aroundtackling the issue of the platform’sharm to teenagers. Some senatorscalled her testimony a “Big Tobac-co” moment for the technology in-dustry.

The lawmakers said Ms. Hau-gen’s testimony, and the thou-

sands of pages of documents shehad gathered from the companyand then leaked, showed thatFacebook’s top executives hadmisled the public and could not betrusted.

“This research is the definitionof a bombshell,” said SenatorRichard Blumenthal, Democrat ofConnecticut, who led the hearing.

Ms. Haugen’s testimony to theSenate Commerce subcommitteeon consumer protection cappedseveral intense weeks of scrutinyfor Facebook after she leakedthousands of pages of internal

documents to The Wall StreetJournal. The newspaper’s cover-age last month set off one of Face-book’s worst public relations cri-ses since a data privacy scandal in2018 with the consulting firmCambridge Analytica.

On Sunday, Ms. Haugen’s iden-tity as the whistle-blower becamepublic when she set up a personalwebsite and appeared on “60 Min-utes.”

Facebook has repeatedlypushed back on the criticism, say-ing its research was taken out ofcontext and misunderstood.

Late Tuesday evening, MarkZuckerberg, the chief executive,

Ex-Insider Says FacebookHid Efforts to Hook Users

Senate Panel Is Told How Platforms ProfitFrom Spread of Harmful Content

By CECILIA KANG

Frances Haugen leaked thou-sands of pages of documents.

T.J. KIRKPATRICK FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES

Continued on Page A22

WASHINGTON — Top Ameri-can counterintelligence officialswarned every C.I.A. station andbase around the world last weekabout troubling numbers of in-formants recruited from othercountries to spy for the UnitedStates being captured or killed,people familiar with the mattersaid.

The message, in an unusual topsecret cable, said that the C.I.A.’scounterintelligence mission cen-ter had looked at dozens of casesin the last several years involvingforeign informants who had beenkilled, arrested or most likelycompromised. Although brief, thecable laid out the specific numberof agents executed by rival intelli-gence agencies — a closely helddetail that counterintelligence of-ficials typically do not share insuch cables.

The cable highlighted the strug-gle the spy agency is having as itworks to recruit spies around theworld in difficult operating envi-ronments. In recent years, adver-sarial intelligence services incountries such as Russia, China,Iran and Pakistan have been hunt-ing down the C.I.A.’s sources andin some cases turning them intodouble agents.

Acknowledging that recruitingspies is a high-risk business, thecable raised issues that have

C.I.A. IssuesAlert on Risks

To InformantsBy JULIAN E. BARNESand ADAM GOLDMAN

Continued on Page A6

In the chaos of the Americanmilitary withdrawal and the Tal-iban takeover this summer, thou-sands of American-made weap-ons and tons of military equip-ment were seized by the militantsas government military bases sur-rendered or were overrun.

With the Taliban in power, moreAmerican weapons and militaryaccessories are now being openlysold in shops by Afghan gun deal-ers who paid government soldiersand Taliban fighters for guns, am-munition and other matériel, ac-cording to weapons dealers inKandahar Province in southernAfghanistan.

In interviews, three weaponsdealers in Kandahar said that doz-ens of Afghans have set up weap-ons shops in Afghanistan’s south,selling American-made pistols, ri-fles, grenades, binoculars andnight-vision goggles. The equip-ment was originally provided tothe Afghan security forces undera U.S. training and assistance pro-gram that cost American taxpay-ers more than $83 billion throughtwo decades of war.

During the insurgency, the Tal-iban eagerly sought out Ameri-can-supplied weapons and gear.But now much of that weaponry isbeing sold to Afghan en-trepreneurs because Taliban de-mand has eased with the end of

Now for SaleIn Afghanistan:American GunsBy RUHULLAH KHAPALWAK

and DAVID ZUCCHINO

Continued on Page A6

Chinese tech companies arereeling from regulation. Nervouscreditors are hoping for a bailoutfor China’s largest developer.Growing numbers of executivesare going to jail. An entire indus-try is shutting down.

For China’s leader, Xi Jinping,it’s all part of the plan.

Under Mr. Xi, China is reshap-

ing how business works and lim-iting executives’ power. Long incoming, but rapid in execution,the policies are driven by a desirefor state control and self-relianceas well as concerns about debt, in-equality and influence by foreigncountries, including the UnitedStates.

Emboldened by swelling na-tionalism and his success withCovid-19, Mr. Xi is remaking Chi-

na’s business world in his own im-age. Above all else, that meanscontrol. Where once executiveshad a green light to grow at anycost, officials now want to dictatewhich industries boom, which

ones bust and how it happens. Thechanges offer a glimpse of Mr. Xi’svision for managing the economy,ahead of a political meeting ex-pected to solidify his plans for anunprecedented third term.

The goal is to fix structuralproblems, like excess debt and in-equality, and generate more bal-anced growth. The measuresmark the end of a Gilded Age for

An Emboldened Xi Remakes China’s Business World in His ImageBy PAUL MOZUR Tightening Rules and

Jailing Executives

Continued on Page A8

DANIELE VOLPE FOR THE NEW YORK TIMES

Migrants ousted from a church in a Mexico border city found shelter across the street. Page A4.Pastor Shuts Doors; Brother Opens His

WASHINGTON — PresidentBiden and Democratic leaders inCongress in recent days haveslashed their ambitions for a ma-jor expansion of America’s socialsafety net to a package worth$2.3 trillion or less, which willforce hard choices about how toscale back a proposal that thepresident hopes will be transfor-mational.

The figure is substantially lessthan Mr. Biden’s earlier plan,which called for $3.5 trillion innew spending and tax cuts to spura generational expansion of gov-ernment in Americans’ lives, in-cluding efforts to fight climatechange and child poverty, in-crease access to education andhelp American companies com-pete with China.

Democratic leaders will proba-bly need to narrow their plans forfree community college, child taxcredits and universal prekinder-garten so they are offered only tolower- and middle-income Ameri-cans, according to party membersinvolved in the negotiations.

The White House is also debat-ing whether to try to keep as manyprograms as possible, by cuttingtheir duration or reach, or to jetti-son some initiatives entirely tokeep others largely intact, accord-ing to people familiar with the dis-cussions.

The cuts represent a blow to Mr.Biden’s agenda, but the remainingplans would still deliver signifi-cant benefits to a wide range ofAmericans.

Mr. Biden and his aides haveknown for months that they wouldmost likely need to reduce the sizeand scope of his plans to satisfymoderates in his party. But the

Tough ChoicesAs Biden Tries To Shrink Plan

By JIM TANKERSLEYand EMILY COCHRANE

Continued on Page A16

WASHINGTON — In March2006, as the government veereddangerously close to a default,Senator Mitch McConnell, theNo. 2 Republican, let the BushWhite House know he was twovotes short of what he needed toraise the legal limit on federal bor-rowing.

Andrew H. Card Jr., then theWhite House chief of staff, beganworking the phones. He soonfound two Democrats willing tobreak ranks and vote to put thelegislation over the top.

But instead of thanking him, theSenate leader grew irate. Mr. Mc-Connell had been hoping to ex-tract concessions from PresidentGeorge W. Bush as the price for

uniting Republicans around liftingthe limit.

“I don’t need your damnedvotes,” he snapped at Mr. Card. Helifted the debt ceiling with Repub-licans only.

Mr. Card never learned whatthe Kentucky Republican wanted,but he tells the story for a reason:Mr. McConnell has long used theperiodic need to raise the govern-ment’s borrowing limit as amoment of leverage to secure apolicy win, as have leaders of

both parties.But two weeks before a poten-

tially catastrophic default, Mr. Mc-Connell, now the minority leader,has yet to reveal what he wants,telling President Biden in a letteron Monday, “We have no list of de-mands.”

Instead, he appears to want tosow political chaos for Democratswhile insulating himself and otherRepublicans from an issue thathas the potential to divide them.

Mr. McConnell has said the gov-ernment must not be allowed tostop paying its debts; he has alsosaid he will not let any Republi-cans vote to raise the debt limit,while moving to block Democratsfrom doing so themselves.

He plans to do so again on

McConnell Offers No Votes and No Demands

By JONATHAN WEISMAN As U.S. Nears a DebtCrisis, RepublicansLet the Clock Tick

Continued on Page A16

The rapper, who’s awaiting trial on guncharges, has tallied billions of streamsand four chart-topping albums despitealmost no mainstream profile. PAGE C1

ARTS C1-8

YoungBoy’s Surprising SuccessThe Yankees fell to Boston in a one-gameplayoff, a format some love, some hateand one that may soon go away. PAGE B7

SPORTS B7-9, 12

After 162 Games, One ChanceThe Afghanistan war’s ending without asingle soldier listed as missing reflectsa shift in military priorities. PAGE A13

NATIONAL A13-19, 22

An American First: No M.I.A.s

Inspired by video games, movies andtelevision shows like “Star Trek” and“Game of Thrones,” writers are creatingcookbooks and new recipes with play-ers and viewers in mind. PAGE D1

FOOD D1-8

Fan Fiction, but for FoodA commission set up at the request ofthe Roman Catholic Church in Francefound the problem was more wide-spread than had been thought. PAGE A9

INTERNATIONAL A4-12

Over 200,000 Minors Abused

A reliance on exports has left Europe’slargest economy especially vulnerableto shortages of key materials. PAGE B1

BUSINESS B1-6

Supply Crisis Tests GermanyA new charter school in the Bronx hasan unusual focus: career paths revolv-ing around basketball. PAGE B9

Schooled on the Court

A Russian film crew arrived at theInternational Space Station, aiming toshoot a feature film in orbit. PAGE A10

Zero-G on the Set

The head of the N.Y.P.D.’s SergeantsBenevolent Association was also said tohave been targeted. PAGE A19

F.B.I. Raids a Police Union

Lauren Williams PAGE A21

OPINION A20-21

A new House map proposed by Texas Republicans aims to lock in the party’s advantage in Washington. Pages A14-15.

How Texas Plans to Make Its House Districts Even Redder

DallasDallasFort WorthFort Worth DallasDallasFort WorthFort Worth

HoustonHouston HoustonHouston

AustinAustin

San Antonio

El Paso

AustinAustin

El Paso

proposed districts for this decade

current congressional districts

3836

San Antonio

Sources: U.S. Census Bureau; Texas Legislative Council ELLA KOEZE, DENISE LU AND BILL MARSH/THE NEW YORK TIMES

Most Democratic (Biden +10 or more)

More competitive (less than 10-pt. margin)

Most Republican (Trump +10 or more)

9

14

13

12

3

23

CURRENT DISTRICTS2020 PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION MARGINS PROPOSED DISTRICTS

Alan Kalter, 78, was far more than the“Late Show” announcer: He took partin zany stunts for 20 years. PAGE B11

OBITUARIES B10-11

The Voice of Letterman’s Show

Late Edition

VOL. CLXXI . . . No. 59,203 © 2021 The New York Times Company NEW YORK, WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 6, 2021

Today, cloudy at first, partial clear-ing later, a little milder, high 72. To-night, partly cloudy, low 62. Tomor-row, periodic clouds and sunshine,high 74. Weather map, Page B12.

$3.00