Whistleblower says Facebook making ‘disastrous’ choices for children, privacy and democracy
During a Senate subcommittee hearing on Monday, former Facebook product manager Frances Haugen testified that “the choices being made inside of Facebook are disastrous for our children, for our public safety, for our privacy and for our democracy.”
Video Transcript
FRANCES HAUGEN: I have worked as a product manager at large tech companies since 2006, including Google, Pinterest, Yelp, and Facebook. My job has largely focused on algorithmic products, like Google Plus Search, and recommendation systems like the one that powers the Facebook news feed.
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. And that is why we must demand Facebook make changes.
During my time at Facebook, first working as the Lead Product Manager for Civic Misinformation, and later on counter-espionage, I saw Facebook repeatedly encounter conflicts between its own profits and our safety. Facebook consistently resolved these conflicts in favor 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 radicalized 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.
