Facebook 'operating in shadows, hiding research from public scrutiny,' says Whistleblower

A former Facebook employee, an anonymous whistleblower that recently came out in the open after releasing a trove of documents on Facebook’s internal policies, told US members of Congress Tuesday that the social media giant 'is operating in the shadows, hiding its research from public scrutiny’. The ex-employee who has been identified as Frances Haugen said that the vulnerable people, including the kids, are “harmed by its [Facebook] systems.” Facebook’s ex- data scientist stated in her shocking testimony that the platform is “designed to exploit negative emotions to keep people on it.”

Speaking before the Senate Commerce Subcommittee on Consumer Protection, Frances Haugen said: “They [Facebook] are aware of the side effects of the choices they have made around amplification. They know that algorithmic-based rankings, or engagement-based rankings, keeps you on their sites longer. You have longer sessions, you show up more often, and that makes them more money.” 

Facebook metrics and profit-driven, Zuckerberg key decision-maker: Whistleblower

Haugen told lawmakers that Facebook’s corporate environment was “machine-like” and metrics and profit-driven. She noted, while the company didn’t set out to make a destructive platform, the CEO Mark Zuckerberg holds considerable power with more than 50 per cent of the voting shares in the firm making him the sole decision-maker that drives metrics, according to the transcripts published by the Associated Press.  Haugen also gave many of the documents to The Wall Street Journal, which published the initial reports. US broadcasters reported that the whistleblower also handed internal research to Senator Richard Blumenthal, Democrat of Connecticut, and Senator Marsha Blackburn, Republican of Tennessee, who are both on the Senate subcommittee on Consumer Protection, Product Safety, and Data Security.

Furthermore, the former employee stressed that the new regulations were desperately needed for Facebook to amend the platform, as she also pointed out at Instagram, who she said focuses on “raking in most advertising dollars.” As the whistleblower delivered her testimony, lawmakers agreed that even as efforts to introduce new regulations on Facebook have failed in the past, it was time to fix that. 

"Facebook has not earned a right to just have blind trust in them," Haugen said, according to the transcripts. "Trust is ... last week one of the most beautiful things I heard on the committee was trust is earned. And Facebook has not earned our trust," she added. 

The ex-employee said that Facebook suffered from "moral bankruptcy" and is "stuck in a loop it can't get out of."

Facebook’s former employee brought focus on Instagram’s potential “toxic” effect on teen girls, and youth stating that the company’s leadership “knows how to make Facebook and Instagram safer but won’t make the necessary changes because they have put their astronomical profits before people.” She then asked lawmakers to take action as Facebook’s products “harm children, stoke division, and weaken our democracy.” She said: “Congressional action is needed. They won’t solve this crisis without your help.” Haugen also told the Senate subcommittee that she had come forward “at great personal risk” as she believes that there’s “still have time to act. But we must act now.”