On Tuesday, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg made a statement that directly contradicts what a former Facebook executive said in an interview late last December, which begs the question: Did Zuckerberg lie to Congress?
“Do social media companies hire consulting firms to help them figure out how to get more dopamine feedback loops so that people don’t want to leave the platform?” Sen. Ben Sasse (R-NE) asked Zuckerberg.
Zuckerberg replied: “No, Senator. That’s not how we talk about this or how we set up our product teams.”
WATCH:
Zuckerberg’s statement appears to contradict a statement made by Chamath Palihapitiya, who previously served as Facebook’s vice president for user growth, during a talk last December at the Stanford Graduate School of Business.
Palihapitiya said he felt “tremendous guilt” over his work that led to the creation of tools that are “ripping apart the social fabric of how society works.”
“The short-term, dopamine-driven feedback loops that we have created are destroying how society works,” Palihapitiya continued. “No civil discourse, no cooperation, misinformation, mistruth.”
WATCH: