Insider Q&A: Sophie Zhang, Facebook whistleblower

Sophie Zhang worked as a low-level Facebook data scientist nearly three years before was she fired in the fall of 2020

Sophie Zhang worked as a Facebook data scientist for nearly three years before was she fired in the fall of 2020. On her final day, she posted a 7,800-word memo to the company’s internal forum — such farewell notes, if not the length, are a common practice for departing employees. In the memo, first published by Buzzfeed, she outlined evidence that governments in countries like Azerbaijan and Honduras were using fake accounts to influence the public. Elsewhere, such as India and Ecuador, Zhang found coordinated activity intended to manipulate public opinion, although it wasn’t clear who was behind it. Facebook, she said, didn't take her findings seriously. Zhang’s experience led her to a stark conclusion: “I have blood on my hands.” Facebook has not disputed the facts of Zhang’s story but has sought to diminish the importance of her findings. “We fundamentally disagree with Ms. Zhang’s characterization of our priorities and efforts to root out abuse on our platform," Facebook said in a statement. “As part of our crackdown against this kind of abuse, we have specialized teams focused on this work and have already taken down more than 150 networks of coordinated inauthentic behavior. Around half of them were domestic networks that operated in Latin America, the Middle East, North Africa, and in the Asia Pacific region."