Opinion

Facebook isn’t the real problem

Critics have attacked Facebook’s Darwin, yet policy makers should
be the ones being blamed for a lack of action

By Arvind Nachiappan
Opinion Columnist

Oct. 18, 2030

Facebook unveils a new sign outside its Menlo Park, CA, headquarters

Six years have passed since Facebook unveiled the revolutionary program Darwin,
which has ensured a cohesive Facebook workforce. Moreover, Facebook’s revenue is up
27% from 2024, and there has only been a single internal protest in the same time frame.
Employee reviews of the company have never been more positive, and the employee
turnover rate is amongst the lowest for tech companies. Similar results can be seen by the
hundreds of other companies which have leased Darwin, including Monsanto, Wells Fargo,
Datawatch, Amazon, and Eagle Eye Networks.
The accolades of the background check program speak for themselves, so the recent
criticism towards the program seem trifling. Admittedly, the thousands of people who
believe that Facebook should not have helped the Department of Justice with Project Karma
and that Project Karma should not have even existed in the first place have a point—but
Darwin is not to blame. All the program does is perform an in-depth analysis on a potential
employee’s social media accounts. Darwin checks account statuses, followed accounts, and
liked posts among the user and the user’s followers to ensure that the potential employee
matches the culture of the company they are applying to. Ultimately, Darwin is a direct
 factor in much of the economic growth of the past 20 years, which is to say that getting rid of
the program would be damaging to the country’s economy.
Neo-Luddites United recently stated that Darwin is among the reasons for increased
surveillance programs and a lack of company morals, evidenced by employees no longer
protesting their employer’s decisions and not quitting their jobs as easily. The advocacy
group directly states that, without Darwin, Facebook would have never helped the
government with Project Karma. However, the real reason Facebook developed the speech
recognition and analysis device to help ensure that people on parole were following the law
was because of the one hundred-million-dollar government contract. Facebook was simply
trying to make money, which is what companies are supposed to do, and Facebook’s
employees were simply doing their jobs. The employees of Facebook should not be held
accountable for following orders and doing what they are supposed to do, so Darwin is not
the cause of Facebook’s involvement in Project Karma. On the contrary, the government,
which sponsored the Project and the contract, should be held accountable for yet another
malicious surveillance attempt.
The beneficial social impact of Darwin cannot be understated. As a result, cyber
bullying on social media by college students has dropped by 22% from 2025, according to
stopbullying.gov. This drop can be attributed to students’ new understanding of how their
social media decisions can have a major effect on future job prospects, ultimately resulting in
a safer Internet. Moreover, employees of companies who use Darwin enjoy their time spent
at work more than employees of corporations who have not adopted the program, evidenced
by employee reviews and turnover rates. Those in top management positions of companies
that use Darwin, including the CEO of Uber, have stated that there is less disagreement
between employees and work is carried out much more efficiently. All in all, Darwin has
done amazing things for both the people and companies.
Instead of blaming the employees of Facebook for not protesting their company’s
involvement in Project Karma, people should turn towards the actual problem. in 2028, the
current administration banned the long-term storage of sounds collected by voice assistants,
slowing down the improvement of voice recognition by tens of years. In 2029, the same
administration sponsored an inadvertently racist artificial intelligence used to help police
officers determine where to patrol. This administration evidently does not understand the
uses and consequences of technology, which is essential in today’s advanced society. The
government itself needs to change, so get out there and vote in the 2030 midterms!

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Link to Images:
https://fbnewsroomus.files.wordpress.com/2015/07/fbwm_cw_07.jpg?w=960
https://img.jakpost.net/c/2017/11/17/2017_11_17_36085_1510900861._large.jpg
https://connexdrones.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/amazon-prime--810x456.jpg