Reporter reveals Facebook paid Eastern European troll farms and the sinister secrets behind its algorithm

The Dworkin Report

Scott speaks with Karen Hao the senior Artificial Intelligence editor for MIT Technology Review whose groundbreaking work looking into Facebook just got validated in a massive way this week by whistleblower Francis Haugen's testimony to the U.S. Senate. Hao holds a mechanical engineering degree from MIT, which she took to outlets like Mother Jones and Quartz where she honed her craft as a data journalist before earning her current senior role and recently becoming a Knight Science Journalism Fellow.

Her groundbreaking reporting spans from the murky world of Facebook’s reliance on artificial intelligence to create programs that make autonomous decisions about what people see and human networks that convert disinformation for hire into cold hard cash. Buzzfeed caught and exposed the Eastern European troll farms who polluted the 2016 election with pro-Trump disinformation, yet Karen reports that not only did Facebook allow people in those same countries to influence Americans with inauthentic content, but they paid them from the network's Instant Articles advertising platform.