Former Facebook executive: 'We have created a tool that's ripping apart the social fabric of how society works'
- Former Facebook executive Chamath Palihapitiya said during a November interview at Stanford that social networks "are destroying how society works."
- Other early Facebook executives have criticized the company in recent weeks as well.
Former Facebook executive Chamath Palihapitiya said in an interview at Stanford's graduate business school that social media is damaging society.
The November talk, which was picked up by The Verge on Monday, is another example of early Facebook executives criticizing what they created.
Palihapitiya said a lot about Facebook's effect on society during the interview, but here's the money quote:
"The short-term, dopamine-driven feedback loops that we have created are destroying how society works. No civil discourse. No cooperation. Misinformation. Mistruth. And it's not an American problem. This is not about Russian ads. This is a global problem. So we are in a really bad state of affairs right now in my opinion," he said.
Palihapitiya also said that people building Facebook in the early days knew in the back of their minds that the platform could be abused, but ignored their instincts.
Watch the full interview: