“In May of this year, Facebook whistleblower Frances Haugen left her position as a product manager at the social media giant and took tens of thousands of internal documents with her. The documents have triggered a maelstrom of allegations, including that Facebook knew its products were damaging teenagers’ mental health, were fomenting ethnic violence in countries such as Ethiopia and were failing to curb misinformation before the 6 January Washington riots. On Monday, Haugen will take her damning views of the company to Westminster when she testifies before MPs and peers. Meanwhile, Facebook spirals deeper into crisis,” reports The Guardian.
“Her concerns over an apparent lack of safety controls in non-English language markets, such as Africa and the Middle East, where the Facebook platform was being used by human traffickers and armed groups in Ethiopia, were a key factor in her decision to act. ‘I did what I thought was necessary to save the lives of people, especially in the global south, who I think are being endangered by Facebook’s prioritisation of profits over people. If I hadn’t brought those documents forward that was never going to come to light.’ Haugen said.”
“Haugen says her friends and family have been supportive since she stepped forward this month as the source of a series of Wall Street Journal revelations based on her leaks. ‘A friend of mine, right before I did testimony, gave me this wonderful saying, which is what I repeat to myself when I have anxiety, which is, it’s not about you: you are the conduit for the documents,’ she says.”
“The revelations have been relentless since the WSJ first started reporting on the documents and give the impression of a company that is unable, or unwilling, to combat the consequences of its huge scale. Facebook’s family of apps – including its main platform, Facebook messenger, Instagram and WhatsApp – is used by 2.8 billion people a day. With politicians and regulators on both sides of the Atlantic closing in, it has been reported that Zuckerberg will announce a rebranding of the parent company this week in a bid to put distance between his business and the revelations.”
“For Haugen, Zuckerberg is a big part of the problem. The Facebook founder and chief executive controls a majority of the voting shares in the company, which makes his position unassailable. That has to change, says Haugen, and she believes independent investors in Facebook would seek change at the top if they could. Against a backdrop of revelations about Instagram’s damaging impact on teen mental health and Facebook’s failure to police rightwing hate speech and misinformation in its home market, Haugen says Zuckerberg has failed to show he can protect the public from the negative effects of his networks.”