Whistleblower, Frances Haugen, says Facebook endangers children, lies about misinformation

In stunning testimony, Facebook whistleblower Frances Haugen this morning told a US Senate Committee that her former employer harmed children, stoked division, and weakened US democracy. 

Her evidence led one senator, Ed Markey, to compare Facebook's attitude to that of Big Tobacco. It is not the first tie such an unfavourable comparison has surfaced.

Unlike many internal and external critics who have raised similar arguments in the past, Haugen, who was a lead product manager for civic misinformation, and later counterespionage at Facebook bought receipts in the form of internal documents.

"The documents I have provided to Congress prove that Facebook has repeatedly misled the public about what its own research reveals about the safety of children, the efficacy of its artificial intelligence systems and its role in spreading divisive and extreme messages. I came forward because I believe that every human being deserves the dignity of the truth.

Throughout her career, Haugen has focused on algorithmic products like Google-plus search and recommendation systems like the one that powers the Facebook newsfeed.

"Having worked on four different types of social networks, I understand how complex and nuanced these problems are. However, the choices being made inside of Facebook are disastrous for our children, for our public safety, for our privacy and for our democracy."

Pressure has been mounting on the social network all week following a series of reports and revelations in the media, including in the WSJ and on 60 minutes.

Haugen made clear her view that Facebook has little regard for the disastrous impact its products can have upon individuals, especially children, and across society.

"Yesterday, we saw Facebook get 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. It also means that millions of small businesses weren’t able to reach potential customers and countless photos of new babies weren’t joyously celebrated by family and friends around the world."

During her opening statement, she said, "I saw Facebook repeatedly encounter conflicts between its own profits and our safety. Facebook consistently resolved these conflicts in favour of its own profits. The result has been more division, more harm, more lies, more threats, and more combat. In some cases, this dangerous online talk has led to actual violence that harms and even kills people. This is not simply a matter of certain social media users being angry or unstable, or about one side being radicalised against the other, it is about Facebook choosing to grow at all costs, becoming an almost trillion-dollar company by buying its profits with our safety."

And while Facebook has been forced through criticism — and an advertiser strike involving over 1000 clients including large global brands in 2020 — to address aspects of hate speech and misinformation, Haugen revealed it devotes fewer resources to the problem in non-English speaking countries, often fuelling violence in those locations.

Transparency, not

She told the hearing, "The fact that Facebook is so scared of even basic transparency, that it goes out of its way to block researchers who are asking awkward questions, shows the need for Congressional oversight.”

According to Haugen “As long as Facebook is operating in the dark, it is accountable to no one. And it will continue to make choices that go against the common good.”

"Almost no one outside of Facebook knows what happens inside of Facebook. The company intentionally hides vital information from the public, from the US government and from governments around the world."

Big Tobacco

Haugen compared Facebook to some of the great corporate villains of the past. 

"As long as Facebook is operating in the shadows, hiding its research from public scrutiny, it is unaccountable. Until the incentives change, Facebook will not change. Left alone, Facebook will continue to make choices that go against the common good. Our common good. When we realised big tobacco was hiding the harms it caused, the government took action. When we figured out cars were safer with seat belts, the government took action. And when our government learned that opioids were taking lives, the government took action."

According to Senator Ed Markey, “Facebook is like Big Tobacco, enticing young kids with that first cigarette. A first social media account designed to keep kids as users for life.”

“Congress will be taking action. We will not allow your company to harm our children and our families and our democracy, any longer,” he said.

Markey is not the first person, or even the first Senator to make the comparison. Similar accusations were surfaced in a Senate hearing in March this year. 

While Facebook's behaviour has long been the subject of commentary and criticism, today's evidence still struck home for some in the industry.

Sadly, expected

According to Liz Miller, VP and Principal Analyst at Constellation Research, "Is it sad that, at least to me, the extensive nature of Facebook’s internal research is the big surprise? The confirmation of Facebook being a business that has profited through their position as a platform of influence by intentionally misleading and creating their own definition of ethics and reality is not new."

Miller said Facebook's behaviour started years ago and has grown and expanded into far more damaging and questionable actions and applications. "The first time Facebook was caught with incorrect and wholly inaccurate reporting, everyone shook their heads and said, well this will be the lesson learned. But it never was."

She told Digital Nation, "The algorithm changed, at least publicly, to give users a more personalized and relevant experience…but what the whistleblower documents confirm is something we have all known for years…changes were solving the problem of users spending less time on a platform which directly impacts advertiser viewability and clicks."

She said the changes were not solving (or even pretending to solve) the issue of misinformation and abject hatred that, while horrible and distasteful, still drives viewership and engagement.

Advertiser strike, contextualised

Asked how Haugen's evidence could be contextualised with early push back against the company such as the 2020 advertiser strike, Miller said, "This is where it gets tricky. What we learned in the advertiser strike of last year be it during BLM movements or the US Capitol insurrection…advertisers were happy to take a stand of consciousness, some happier to grab the headlines that came with that…but overall, that strike didn’t even slow Facebook down for a moment."

The small to mid-size product companies poured even more money onto the platform taking advantage of the oxygen created by the absence of the big brands that needed to take a social stand. "And the divisive and abhorrent practices used to throttle up engagement and site stickiness worked so well that the advertisers got the eyeballs and spend they paid for. "

At the time of writing, Facebook had not responded to Haugen's testimony.