Facebook and Meta: the vice president denies putting profits before safety

Facebook claims to “spend and do more than any other tech company” on security.

The company’s vice president also told Newsbeat that Instagram, which she owns, makes young people “feel better”.

This is after it has recently received a lot of criticism about what it does for the safety and well-being of users.

A former employee accused Facebook of putting “profits on safety” when he spoke to politicians earlier this month.

The company, which changed its name to Meta, says it is building an entirely new technological world called the metaverse.

Some experts think the metaverse could change the internet forever.

“This is a new chapter for our company,” Nicola Mendelsohn, Meta’s vice president for Europe, the Middle East and Africa, told Radio 1 Newsbeat.

“The Meta name is really about where our company is going and also about the future we want to help build.”

He says the metaverse “will allow people to connect, find communities and grow businesses.”

‘Profit before safety’

On Monday, former Facebook employee Frances Haugen told lawmakers that Facebook’s security teams had insufficient resources.

“Facebook did not want to accept that even small slivers of profit were sacrificed for security,” he said.

And he warned that Instagram was “more dangerous than other forms of social media.”

But Nicola Mendelsohn says the company is not putting profits ahead of security and is spending $ 5 billion (£ 3.6 billion) this year “to protect people’s safety, data and privacy on our platforms” .

Facebook is the largest social media site in the world, with over two billion users.

He added that the company employs over 40,000 people in this area, claiming that Facebook “spends and does more than any other tech company.”

Ms. Mendelsohn says Facebook is all about “making sure people feel good about the experience they have in our services.”

He adds: “We make money from advertising. Advertisers don’t want their ads to be alongside malicious content.”

Some leaked reports claimed that Facebook sat on research showing that Instagram harmed the mental health of teens and struggled to remove hate speech from its platforms outside the United States.

Mark Zuckerberg described the reports as a “coordinated effort to selectively use leaked documents to paint a false image of our company.”

“The vast majority of people who log into our platform are having great experiences, connecting with their friends,” says Nicola Mendelsohn.

He says the company puts the safety of younger users first and is working with experts to develop safety features for under-18s.

“We have created new features, such as Take A Break, which encourage people to also limit the time they spend on our apps.

“In reality what young people are telling us is that the time they spend on Instagram makes them feel better, especially if they are people who are struggling with things like loneliness.”

Follow Newsbeat on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter And Youtube.

Listen to Newsbeat inhabit at 12:45 pm and 5:45 pm on weekdays – or listen again here.