Former Facebook Employee Haugen Testifies Before Congress

A Facebook whistleblower is testifying to the Senate alleging the company is aware of harm it causes children and democracy but does little to address it.

Published 5 October 2021

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Facebook receives a blow in the U.S. Congress, as Frances Haugen, a former Facebook official turned whistleblower, reveals the inner workings of the social media giant.

A disgruntled Facebook whistleblower who expressed concerns about numerous of the company's business operations testified before Congress on Tuesday, following a succession of damaging disclosures about the firm.

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Frances Haugen, a former Facebook project manager who leaked a vast collection of internal information to the Wall Street Journal, told a Senate subcommittee that Facebook "put their astronomical profits before people" and called on Congress to reign in the tech giant.

"We can have social media we enjoy, that connects us, without tearing our democracy apart, putting our children in danger, and sowing ethnic violence around the world," Haugen said.

The documents Haugen released revealed several damaging information about the company's growth strategies, including bids to market its products directly to children, documents highlighting the severity of the platform's public health misinformation crisis, and internal research that deemed its Instagram platform harmful to the mental health of young girls.

Facebook whistleblower Frances Haugen testifies before Congress: "We can have social media we enjoy, that connects us, without tearing apart our democracy, putting our children in danger, and sowing ethnic violence around the word. We can do better." https://t.co/GkaqZO7xH8 pic.twitter.com/oLbmCKb1A3
— ABC News (@ABC) October 5, 2021

"The choices being made inside of Facebook are disastrous for our children, our public safety, or our privacy and for our democracy. And that is why we must demand Facebook to make changes," Haugen told senators on Tuesday.

Facebook hasn't explicitly rejected any of the Journal's reporting, but it has called the characterizations "misleading" and has strongly resisted them.

It is worth noting that on Monday Facebook and the platforms the social media giant acquired, Instagram and WhatsApp, were hit by a sudden massive outage that caused millions to lose access to Facebook's apps and products.