Facebook whistleblower - Haugen called ‘21st century hero’ by Senate as Zuckerberg told toxic time is up
Frances Haugen urges government to regulate social media company
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Facebook whistleblower Frances Haugen has testified before a Senate hearing, urging the government to regulate the social media company.
In a rare moment of unity seldom seen in Congress, Ms Haugen responded to in-depth questions from lawmakers from both parties concerning the impact of social media on children, concerns about national security, and what her specific recommendations are for reforming the sector.
The testimony adds to Ms Haugen’s interview with CBS’s 60 Minutes on Sunday, said that the social network repeatedly prioritised “growth over safety” and is “tearing our societies apart”.
Facebook’s stock plummeted on Monday in the aftermath of Ms Haugen’s interview and as its companies experienced an extended service outage.
It was the worst session performance for the company in nearly a year with the share price falling 4.9 per cent – the worst decline since the five per cent drop recorded on 9 November 2020.
According to her written testimony, which is to be heard by the Senate Commerce subcommittee on Tuesday, Ms Haugen will compare the social media giant’s practices to those in the tobacco and motoring industries.
“When we realized tobacco companies were hiding the harms it caused, the government took action. When we figured out cars were safer with seatbelts, the government took action,” Ms Haugen said in her written testimony. “I implore you to do the same here.”
Earlier this year, Ms Haugen left Facebook, where she worked as a member of its misinformation team. Prior to leaving her role, she copied a series of internal memos and documents that have been shared by The Wall Street Journal over the past three weeks.
ICYMI: Haugen’s opening statement
In case you missed it, here’s Ms Haugen’s complete opening statement.
What they said: the hearing in quotes
Frances Haugen, Facebook Whistleblower
“I’m here today because I believe Facebook’s products harm children, stoke division and weaken our democracy.”
“There is no one currently holding Mark [Zuckerberg] to account. The buck stops with Mark.”
“Yesterday we saw Facebook taken off the internet. I don’t know why it went down, but I know that for more than five hours, Facebook wasn’t used to deepen divides, destabilise democracies and make young girls and women feel bad about their bodies.”
“The company’s leadership knows how to make Facebook and Instagram safer, but won’t make the necessary changes because they put their astronomical profits before people.”
Senator Dan Sullivan, Republican, Alaska
“I think we’re going to look back 20 years from now and all of us are going to be like ‘what the hell were we thinking’ when we recognise the damage that it [social media] has done to a generation.”
Senator Edward Markey, Democrat, Massachusetts
“Your [Facebook’s] time of invading our privacy and preying on children is over. Congress will be taking action.”
Kevin McAlister, Facebook spokesperson, by Email
“The very existence of internal research on tough and complex issues is being recast as an example that Facebook isn’t living up to its responsibilities. The opposite is true: this research is more proof that we invest heavily so our teams can improve our apps and the resources we provide.”
Senator Amy Klobuchar, Democrat, Minnesota
“When they allowed 99 per cent of violent content to remain unchecked on their platform including the lead-up to the January 6 insurrection, what did they do? Now we know Mark Zuckerberg was going sailing.”
Senator Roger Wicker, Republican, Mississippi
“Children of America are hooked on their product. There is cynical knowledge on behalf of these Big Tech companies that this is true.”
Senator Marsha Blackburn, Republican, Tennessee
“The research was Facebook’s internal research. So they knew what they were doing, they knew where the violations were and they know they are guilty.”
“Facebook is not interested in making significant changes to improve kids’ safety on their platforms, at least not when that would result in losing eyeballs on posts or decreasing their ad revenues.”
Senator Richard Blumenthal, Democrat, Connecticut
“The damage to self-interest and self-worth inflicted by Facebook today will haunt a generation.”
“Big Tech now faces the Big Tobacco jaw-dropping moment of truth.”
“Our children are the ones who are victims. Teens today looking in the mirror feel doubt and insecurity. Mark Zuckerberg ought to be looking at himself in the mirror.”
Reuters
Will Facebook discontinue plans for Instagram Kids?
“I would be sincerely surprised if they do not continue working on Instagram Kids, and I would be amazed if a year from now we don’t have this conversation again,” says Frances Haugen.
Facebook ‘leading young users to anorexia content’
Voices: Facebook’s ‘moral bankruptcy’ laid bare
Ahmed Baba writes:
A damning picture is coming into focus: Facebook knows exactly how destructive its products are and they aren’t doing everything in their power to fix them. These new allegations show that time and time again, Facebook executives choose the maximization of profit over the public good.
Why Facebook should be worried after whistleblower delivers bombshell testimony
We now have someone from inside Facebook with tens of thousands of documents laying Facebook’s ‘moral bankruptcy’ bare
Five takeaways from explosive Senate hearing
Reporting for The Independent from Washington, DC, Andrew Feinberg recaps five of the most important takeaways from today’s explosive testimony by Facebook whistleblower Frances Haugen.
Five takeaways from Facebook whistleblower explosive Senate hearing
Frances Haugen testified before the Senate Commerce Committee’s subcommittee on Tuesday
Facebook shares end day up
Shares in Facebook ended the day up despite this morning’s bombshell testimony.
The company recovered some of Monday’s losses when it lost almost five per cent of its value in the fallout from Ms Haugen’s 60 Minutes interview and as a technical fault left its services offline for close to six hours.
Shares in the social media giant ended the day up just over two per cent, closing at 332.96, up 6.73 points. In spite of its current woes, Facebook is up 13.8 per cent year-to-date.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.92 per cent to close out trading on Tuesday at 34,314.67 points, while the S&P 500 gained 1.05 per cent to 4,345.73.
The tech heavy Nasdaq Composite climbed 1.25 per cent to 14,433.83.
That’s all from today’s rolling coverage of whistleblower Frances Haugen’s testimony to Senators regarding Facebook.
Stay tuned to The Independent for all the latest news and analysis from Capitol Hill and the world of tech.
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