'Tackle company like Big Tobacco': Facebook whistleblower warns US Congress of social media harm

Facebook whistleblower Frances Haugen said the harms caused by the social media platform needed to be tackled like the harms caused by the tobacco industry as she testified before a US Senate committee on protecting children online.

Ms Haugen, 37, a former product manager at the social media giant, leaked internal documents to both the Wall Street Journal newspaper and the US Securities and Exchange Commission.

At the start of the hearing, she told Congress: “I’m here today because I believe Facebook’s products harm children, stoke division and weaken our democracy.”

She added “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, that caused the government to take action. When we figured out cars were safer with seatbelts, the government took action.

“And when our government learned that opioids were taking lives, the government took action,” she said, adding: “I implore you to do the same here today.”

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"Mark holds a very unique role in the tech industry in that he holds over 55% of all the voting shares for Facebook. There are no similarly powerful companies that are as unilaterally controlled… There's no one currently holding Mark accountable but himself." pic.twitter.com/j3dAERCkai

In particular she warned that there was nobody at the company holding CEO Mark Zuckerberg accountable other than himself.

“Mark holds a very unique role in the tech industry in that he holds over 55% of all the voting shares for Facebook. There are no similarly powerful companies that are as unilaterally controlled,” she said.

In her opening statement she said: “The company’s leadership knows ways to make Facebook and Instagram safer and won’t make the necessary changes because they have put their immense profits before people. Congressional action is needed,” she added.

Following her opening statement, committee chair Senator Blumenthal thanked Ms Haugen and said: “We will do anything and everything to protect and stop any retaliation against you, and any legal action that the company may bring to bear.”

The whistleblower had revealed her identity in an interview on CBS’s 60 Minutes where she said that Facebook prematurely turned off safeguards designed to combat misinformation which contributed to the US Capitol attack.

The hearing from the US Senate sub-committee on consumer protection focuses on the Wall Street Journal’s reportage which it said “revealed troubling insights regarding how Instagram affects teenagers, how it handles children onto the platform, and other consumer protection matters related to Facebook”.

“The hearing will provide an opportunity for a Facebook whistleblower to discuss their perspective and experience with the subcommittee, including how to update children’s privacy regulations and other laws to protect consumers online,” the committee said.

Among Ms Haugen’s key warnings was how Facebook optimised its algorithms to increase engagement through discord and arguments, something which benefited the company’s revenues.

Facebook has responded to a series of stories published by the Wall Street Journal based on her leaked documents, including one that suggested the company knew Instagram had a negative image on the body-image of teenage girls.

Facebook denied that it “conducts research and then systematically and wilfully ignores it if the findings are inconvenient for the company” as it paraphrased the reports.

By Mark Stone, US correspondent

Within minutes of it starting, it was clear immediately that this would be a devastating hearing.

With each sentence spoken by former Facebook employee Frances Haugen came more damning allegations.

She is not calling for the shutdown of Facebook. She says she believes there is a place for a responsible social media company. She highlighted the moments we all enjoy – the sharing of family photos. Staying in touch with distant friends.

But, beyond that, sentence by sentence, literally, Ms Haugen is delivering a truly horrific assessment of Facebook’s practices.

“Almost no one outside Facebook knows what happens inside Facebook…” she said.

“The company’s leadership keeps vital information from the public…”

“Facebook has repeatedly misled us about what it’s own research reveals about the safety of children…”

She described how bullying online through Facebook and Instagram follows children home. It’s often the last thing they read when they go to bed. When she was at school, she said, kids could find a safe place at home at the end of the school day. Now, the pressures and impact is in the palm and with them all the time.

The focus is the safety of children but she broadened her testimony to include the influence Facebook has on politics and hate speech and it’s extraordinarily pervasive influence on societies in countries like Myanmar and Ethiopia.

Ms Haugen was, until May this year, a product manager hired by Facebook to help protect against election interference on the platform.

The chairman of the committee, Democratic senator Richard Blumenthal said in his opening remarks: “The damage inflicted by Facebook will haunt a generation.”

This feels like a tipping point for the social media firm.

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