---
title: "Former Employee: “Facebook is Hurting People at Scale”"
description: "Disgruntled Facebook employees are reckoning with their company's multifaceted role in damaging \"the fabric of our society.\""
date: "2020-07-23"
modified: "2020-07-23"
authors:
  - name: "Dan Robitzski"
    link: "https://futurism.com/authors/danrobitzski"
url: "https://futurism.com/the-byte/facebook-hurting-people-scale"
categories:
  - "Future Society"
tags:
  - "disinformation"
  - "election"
  - "facebook"
  - "the digest"
---

# Former Employee: “Facebook is Hurting People at Scale”

![Disgruntled Facebook employees are reckoning with their company's multifaceted role in damaging "the fabric of our society."](<https://futurism.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/facebook-hurting-people-scale.jpg>)
*\<em\>Image: Anthony Quintano/Victor Tangermann\</em\>*

## The Departed

With the presidential election looming, current and recently-departed Facebook employees are reckoning with the many ways that they say the social media platform is damaging society.

Software engineer Max Wang left the company after seven years this month, *BuzzFeed News* reports. As he departed, he posted a 24-minute video and accompanying note urging his fellow employees to take a closer look at what Facebook was doing to the world.

"I think Facebook is hurting people at scale," he wrote, *BuzzFeed News* reports. "If you think so too, maybe give this a watch."

## Airing Laundry

Workers have raised a [long list of complaints](<https://futurism.com/the-byte/myanmar-military-facebook-genocide>) against Facebook. For instance, *BuzzFeed News* reports that Facebook reportedly refused to match employee donations to black justice organizations as other tech corporations had.

Mark Zuckerberg, who [like other Silicon Valley](<https://futurism.com/the-byte/billionaires-making-killing-off-pandemic>) billionaires has [made billions more](<https://www.cnbc.com/2020/06/16/billionaires-net-worth-grew-amid-covid-19-pandemic-from-market-lows.html>) since lockdown began, [personally told employees](<https://www.businessinsider.com/mark-zuckerberg-blamed-pandemic-in-refusing-facebook-donation-matching-2020-7>) that Facebook wouldn't match donations due to the global recession.

## Great Power, Etc.

On top of that, workers complained about how leadership refuses to [tackle the spread of disinformation] on its platform, which could threaten the legitimacy of the 2020 U.S. presidential election and others around the world.

"Social media has enough power to damage the fabric of our society," engineer Dan Abramov wrote in an internal memo. *BuzzFeed News* reports. "If you think that’s an overstatement, you aren’t paying attention."

**READ MORE:** [“HURTING PEOPLE AT SCALE”](<https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/ryanmac/facebook-employee-leaks-show-they-feel-betrayed>) \[*BuzzFeed News*\]

**More on Facebook:** *[Expert: Online Disinfo Now Targeting COVID-19, Black Lives Matter](<https://futurism.com/expert-online-disinfo-covid-black-lives-matter>)*

## Author
Dan Robitzki is a senior reporter for Futurism, where he likes to cover AI, tech ethics, and medicine. He spends his extra time fencing and streaming games from Los Angeles, California.

### Author social links  
[Twitter](<https://x.com/danrobitzski>)