Whistleblower Frances Haugen calls Facebook danger to children and democracy

She said it knows its algorithms are harmful but puts "profits before people."

A Senate subcommittee on Tuesday heard from a whistleblower who claims Facebook manipulated content it knew was harmful to young users, a day after the social media giant experienced an apparently unrelated massive outage.

Frances Haugen, who revealed her identity during a Sunday interview on CBS' "60 Minutes," has been cooperating with a Senate Commerce subcommittee as part of its ongoing efforts to assess potential regulation of the platform. Haugen told lawmakers on Tuesday about documentation she said show the company -- and CEO Mark Zuckerberg -- intentionally ignored proof of its potentially harmful impact on users.

Facebook has publicly disputed Haugen's claims.


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Blumenthal promises 'riveting testimony'

Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., who chairs the Senate Commerce Subcommittee on Consumer Protection, Product Safety and Data Security, promised "riveting" testimony that would prove to be a "breakthrough moment" ahead of Tuesday's hearing.

"This whistleblower is one gutsy, smart, strong woman who is speaking truth to the nation about how Facebook is dragging children into dark places and deepening their insecurities with online bullying, self-injuries, suicide, eating disorders, and I think she will tell us what it's like to see the top Facebook executives make decisions that profit Facebook at the expense of children's safety, how they put children’s safety above -- below profit-making motive," Blumenthal told reporters Monday evening.

Blumenthal said the documents Haugen has provided show a "searing indictment of the top corporate management of Facebook ignoring their own study, their own surveys and research that showed how they were putting kids in danger, just so they could profit more."

He also alleged Facebook has been "utterly unresponsive" to the committee's requests to disclose their own studies and said he hopes Haugen coming forward will encourage other whistleblowers.


Whistleblower to testify before Senate panel

Frances Haugen, a former Facebook data scientist turned whistleblower, is scheduled to testify before the Senate Consumer Protection Subcommittee at 10 a.m. on Facebook and Instagram’s impacts on young users in a hearing entitled, "Protecting Kids Online: Testimony from a Facebook Whistleblower. "

Beyond alleging Facebook’s knowledge of its platforms’ negative impact on teenagers and young girls, Haugen has reportedly come forward with documents showing the social media giant has also ignored but is aware of how hate speech and misinformation are emphasized on their sites.

Haugen, who revealed her identity during a Sunday interview on CBS' "60 Minutes" has been cooperating with the offices of Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., and Sen. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., chair and ranking member of the Senate committee that is assessing potential regulations for the social media giant.


Hearing adjourns with plea for more whistleblowers to speak out

After more than three hours of testimony, the Senate Commerce subcommittee hearing with Facebook whistleblower Frances Haugen, who has accused the company of deceiving users and investors and putting "profits before people," has adjourned.

While lawmakers battle it out over President Joe Biden’s agenda, they united on Tuesday to blast Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerburg’s silence on Haugen accusations, which raise alarms about the mental health of children and real-world dangers of hate speech she said Facebook knows it perpetuates but ignores. Lawmakers said she has provided hundreds of pages of documents of internal data to back her claims.

Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., the subcommittee chair, closed by reading a text he said he received from a constituent who said he was in tears watching the hearing because, he said, he's seen first-hand how Instagram has changed his teenage daughter.

"'My 15-year-old daughter loved her body at 14. Was on Instagram constantly and maybe posting too much. Suddenly she started hating her body. Her body dysmorphia, now anorexia, and was in deep deep trouble before we found treatment. I fear she'll never be the same,'" Blumenthal said, quoting the father.

Haugen said "because of the nature of engagement-based ranking and amplification of interests," Facebook and Instagram users are "pushed towards extreme dieting and pro-anorexia content very rapidly" -- but that the algorithm perpetuating that could be changed.

After raising new allegations concerning Zuckerberg’s actions, national security concerns, and employee bonuses tied to a system shown to fuel misinformation, Haugen closed with a call to Congress to address Facebook’s growth and provide oversight as it’s historically done for other industries, like tobacco, in the past.

Saying that modern technological systems "walled off," Haugen also called on more whistleblowers with direct knowledge of wrongdoings in big tech to step forward.

"The fact we're being asked these false choices -- it's just an illustration of what happens when the real solutions are hidden inside of companies," she said. "We need more tech employees to come forward through legitimate channels, like the SEC (Securities and Exchange Commission) or Congress, to make sure that the public has the information they need in order to have technologies be human-centric, not computer central."