Independent senator David Pocock has challenged the testimony of Meta’s public policy vice president, who denied the tech giant’s algorithm was “juiced” to garner attention on outrage and misinformation.
“I’m concerned that your evidence just does not square with what we hear from experts,” Pocock said in a bipartisan committee hearing on information integrity.
“Meta are very good at telling us that you are this outstanding global citizen, that we don’t actually have an algorithm that is just prioritising eyeballs, outrage – which leads to money. [Meta says] that it’s not actually about the money.
“It’s just so hard to cop when we’ve seen that repeatedly, your inability to address things like bots has allowed individuals and bad actors to weaponise these armies of bots and amplify misinformation to skew public perception, to influence elections. This is very well documented around the world,” he said.
Meta’s representative, Simon Milner, said the tech giant worked with electoral commissions around the world to ensure election integrity.
“I really would like to be in a position where I feel I’ve reassured the committee that we take these issues seriously, that we do have policies, technologies, people, partnerships in place to try and address – and these are complex issues,” he said.
Committee chair Greens senator Peter Whish-Wilson thanked Milner for his time, but chastised Meta for not appearing voluntarily.
“[Information integrity is] a significant matter of public interest, especially on climate change, and I do say respectfully, next time the committee asks you to appear to explain these things publicly, we shouldn’t have to compel you to appear,” he said.
