Talk of the town：Disputes related to social media
【明報專訊】It is not difficult to notice that people rely on social media to conduct daily communications with one another. Different social media sites or applications are seemingly essential to our daily lives.
Frances Haugen, a former Facebook product manager who leaked thousands of pages of documents which reported that Facebook was aware of the adverse effects the applications has on teenagers, has testified in the US Senate(美國參議院) subcommittee.
She drew an analogy(類似比喻) to the tobacco companies, saying that the government had taken action after knowing the harm of the tobacco, and hence it should do the same in this situation. She emphasized that the algorithm(演算法) of the Facebook group applications ''harm children, stoke division and weaken our democracy''. In response to the testimony, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg claimed that the testimony created a ''false picture of the company'' but agreed that the Congress could take action to protect the teenagers.
◆ Grammar booster
In response to
A conjunction phrase used to describe someone's reaction on something.
e.g. I picked up my phone in response to a notification bell.
■ Gear up
1. Instagram is one of the subsidiary applications of Facebook. (True/ False)
2. Facebook fully supports the statements made by Frances Haugen. (True/ False)
(Answers on next text)
■Glossary
essential (adj) 必要的
adverse (adj) 負面的
division(n) 分歧
democracy (n) 民主
[Smarties' Power English 第323期]
