A former Facebook data scientist who leaked the company’s internal research showing the harm its platforms can cause urged lawmakers Tuesday to take action to regulate the social media giant.
What You Need To Know
- A former Facebook data scientist who leaked the company’s internal research showing the harm its platforms can cause urged lawmakers Tuesday to take action to regulate the social media giant
- Frances Haugen, a former product manager on Facebook’s civic integrity unit, is testifying before the Senate Subcommittee on Consumer Protection, Product Safety and Data Security
- Haugen revealed in a “60 Minutes” interview that aired Sunday that she is the whistleblower who secretly copied tens of thousands of pages of internal research documents before leaving her job
- She testified that she believes “Facebook’s products harm children, stoke division and weaken our democracy”
Frances Haugen, a former product manager on Facebook’s civic integrity unit, is testifying before the Senate Subcommittee on Consumer Protection, Product Safety and Data Security.
Haugen revealed in a “60 Minutes” interview that aired Sunday that she is the whistleblower who secretly copied tens of thousands of pages of internal research documents before leaving her job.
The research found, in part, that Facebook has been aware that its Instagram photo-sharing app has caused mental-health and body-image problems for some young people, as well as eating disorders and suicidal thoughts. The analyses also found that Facebook’s algorithm recommends hateful or harmful content to users.
She shared the documents with the Securities and Exchange Commission and The Wall Street Journal, which published a series of articles.
“I’m here today because I believe Facebook’s products harm children, stoke division and weaken our democracy,” Haugen said in her opening remarks. “The company’s leadership knows how to make Facebook and Instagram safer but won’t make the necessary changes because they have put their astronomical profits before people.”
Haugen said she came to recognize during her time with the company just how opaque its operations are to the outside world. Unless it becomes more transparent, Congress will have a difficult time passing necessary regulations, she said.
“Facebook wants to trick you into thinking that privacy protections or changes to Section 230 alone will be sufficient,” Haugen said. “While important, these will not get to the core of the issue, which is that no one truly understands the destructive choices made by Facebook, except Facebook. We can afford nothing less than full transparency. As long as Facebook is operating in the shadows, hiding its research from public scrutiny, it is unaccountable. Until the incentives change, Facebook will not change.
“Facebook has not earned our blind faith,” she added.
Section 230 is the provision in the 1996 Communications Decency Act that provides online platforms legal immunity from liability for content posted on the internet.
Haugen said she believes Facebook’s problems are solvable.
“A safer, free speech respecting more enjoyable social media is possible. But there’s one thing that I hope everyone takes away from these disclosures: It is that Facebook can change, but it’s clearly not going to do so on its own. My fear is that without action, divisive and extremist behaviors we see today are only the beginning,” she said, referencing the coup in Myanmar and the conflict between the Ethiopian government and rebel forces in the country’s northern Tigray region.
This is a developing story. Check back later for further updates.
