Could Facebook fix its image after internal leaks shook investor confidence?

Facebook Inc (NASDAQ: FB) has been under intense criticism ever since Frances Haugen accused the company of prioritizing corporate profits over safety earlier this month, but Insider’s Henry Blodget is convinced that FB will eventually fix its image.

Facebook is committed to addressing the issues

On CNBC’s “Squawk Box”, Blodget said Facebook’s management was committed to addressing the disclosed issues.

They are talking about throttling a lot of the really bad stuff. One of the things that Haugen pointed out was that FB had optimized its algorithm on engagement. So, they’ll continue to refine it. But I don’t think they will suddenly and radically unplug it.

Facebook said last night its sales in the fiscal third quarter missed estimates as Apple’s recent privacy changes hit advertising revenue. Shares of the social media giant are down about 2.0% on Tuesday.

It’ll take time for Facebook to fix its algorithm

Blodget finds fixing the algorithm a “tricky” problem that’ll take time because Facebook has to find a way to deemphasize engagement, as Haugen suggested, all the while continuing to serve content that people still want to see on their feeds.

Yes, they need to continue to improve. But it’s not a simple problem. The whole idea is to give people a chance to share what they want to share. And then to figure out what to amplify; it’s really tricky.

All in all, he concluded, there’s still a lot of work to be done to minimize such issues and companies, including Facebook, were consistently working to make their platforms safer and better.