Frances Haugen gripped a Senate panel with an inside look at the social networking giant.
Facebook is back in the hot seat. A day after facing massive outages due to a maintenance error, the social platform faced withering criticism from its former product manager Frances Haugen during her testimony before a Senate panel yesterday. We’ve got the scoop on her most revealing revelations about how the company prioritizes profits over safety.
Facebook knows its harmful impact on teens
Haugen surfaced an internal doc showing that Facebook researchers found Instagram can damage teens’ mental health and body image. “Facebook knows that they are leading young users to anorexia content,” she told lawmakers. The platform quickly refuted this claim, saying Haugen did not personally work on this research — which she acknowledged in her testimony.
Facebook’s structure prevents it from stopping vaccine misinformation
“I do not believe Facebook [as it’s] currently structured has the capability to stop vaccine misinformation, because they are overly reliant on artificial reliant systems,” she said. Her comments come amid proposed legislation to hold tech companies like Facebook accountable for helping spread medical misinformation in the midst of a public health crisis.
Facebook lets “metrics make the decision”
Haugen said CEO Mark Zuckerberg lets data drive all of the company’s choices, alleging that there’s “no unilateral responsibility.” That’s why she also called on Congress to demand more transparency, warning that the platform is “accountable to no one.”
Facebook shouldn’t necessarily be broken up
Haugen pushed back against breaking up the platform, which she thinks would drain money from efforts to improve it. Instead, she supports more oversight and regulation from Congress. “These systems are going to continue to exist and be dangerous even if broken up,” she testified.
What’s next?
It’s unclear whether there will be congressional action like Haugen has urged, but lawmakers are fired up, and they’ve called on Zuckberg to potentially take the stand once again. “I think the time has come for action, and I think you are the catalyst for that action,” Sen. Amy Klobuchar said of Haugen’s testimony.
