How people behave is changing: Former Facebook executive

NEW DELHI: A former Facebook executive has said he feels “tremendous guilt” for his work on “tools that are ripping apart the social fabric of how society works”, citing a lynching in Jharkhand that was triggered by a hoax on Whatsapp.

Chamath Palihapitiya, now the CEO of Social Capital, joined Facebook in 2007 and became its vice president for user growth before quitting in 2011. The Sri Lankan-origin tech entrepreneur said Facebook users must decide whether they want to be “programmed” and how much of their “intellectual independence” they were willing to give up.

Palihapitiya made the remarks while speaking at an event at the Stanford business school last month but they were reported by several websites only on Monday.

He made particular mention of the lynching in Jharkhand – caused by a hoax on Whatsapp, which is now owned by Facebook – to drive home his point that social media is “eroding the core foundations of how people behave” with each other.

Palihapitiya said he felt “tremendous guilt” for the tools he helped create for Facebook, though he added that he believes the company “overwhelmingly does good in the world”.

“It literally is a point now where I think we have created tools that are ripping apart the social fabric of how society works,” he said.

Referring to allegations of Russian meddling in the US elections via social media, he added: “No civil discourse, no cooperation; misinformation, mistruth. And it’s not an American problem, this is not about Russians ads. This is a global problem.”