Facebook products harm children and weaken our democracy whistleblower tells US Senate

A former Facebook data scientist told Congress on Tuesday that the social network giant's products harm children and fuel polarization in the U.S. while its executives refuse to change because they elevate profits over safety. And she laid responsibility with the company's CEO, Mark Zuckerberg.

Speaking confidently, Frances Haugen testified to the Senate Commerce Subcommittee on Consumer Protection, accusing the company of being aware of apparent harm Instagram can cause to some teens and being dishonest in its public fight against hate and misinformation.

"Facebook's products harm children, stoke division and weaken our democracy," Haugen said.

"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."

"Congressional action is needed," she said. "They won't solve this crisis without your help."

WATCH | Facebook puts profit over safety, whistleblower says:

Facebook chooses profit over safety, whistleblower testifies7 hours agoA former Facebook data scientist has told a U.S. Senate committee that Facebook has 'repeatedly' misled the public about what its research says about the safety of children who use its social media sites. (Drew Angerer/Associated Press) 0:57

Haugen said the company has acknowledged publicly that integrity controls were crucially needed for its systems that stoke the engagement of users, but then it disabled some of those controls.

In dialogue with receptive Democrat and Republican senators, Haugen, who focused on algorithm products in her work at Facebook, explained the importance the company places on the algorithms that govern what shows up on users' news feeds.

She said a 2018 change to the content flow contributed to more divisiveness and ill will in a network ostensibly created to bring people closer together.

Despite the enmity that the new algorithms were feeding, she said Facebook found that they helped keep people coming back â€" a pattern that helped the social media giant sell more of the digital ads that generate most of its revenue.

'The buck stops with Mark'

Senators agreed.

"It has profited off spreading misinformation and disinformation and sowing hate," said Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., the panel's chair.

"Facebook's answers to Facebook's destructive impact always seems to be more Facebook, we need more Facebook â€" which means more pain, and more money for Facebook."

Republican Sen. Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee and Democratic Sen. Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut listen to Haugen's testimony on Tuesday. (Drew Angerer/Getty Images)

Haugen said she believed that Facebook didn't set out to build a destructive platform. But "in the end, the buck stops with Mark," she said, referring to Zuckerberg, who controls more than 50 per cent of Facebook's voting shares.

"There is no one currently holding Mark accountable but himself."

Haugen said she believed that Zuckerberg was familiar with some of the internal research showing concerns about the potential negative impacts of Instagram.

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg is seen in San Jose, Calif., in May 2018. Haugen testified Tuesday that she believed Zuckerberg was familiar with some of Facebook's internal research showing concerns about potential negative impacts of Instagram. (Marcio Jose Sanchez/Associated Press)

The government needs to step in with stricter oversight of the company, she said.

Like fellow tech giants Google, Amazon and Apple, Facebook has enjoyed minimal regulation. A number of bipartisan legislative proposals for the tech industry address data privacy, protection of young people and anti-competitive conduct.

But getting new laws through Congress is a heavy slog. The Federal Trade Commission has adopted a stricter stance recently toward Facebook and other companies.

'We need to protect the kids'

The subcommittee is examining Facebook's use of information from its own researchers on Instagram that could indicate potential harm for some of its young users, especially girls, while it publicly downplayed the negative impacts.

For some of the teens devoted to Facebook's popular photo-sharing platform, the peer pressure generated by the visually focused Instagram led to mental health and body-image problems, and in some cases, eating disorders and suicidal thoughts, the research leaked by Haugen showed.

One internal study cited 13.5 per cent of teen girls saying Instagram makes thoughts of suicide worse and 17 per cent of teen girls saying it makes eating disorders worse.

Because of the drive for user engagement, Haugen testified, "Facebook knows that they are leading young users to anorexia content. … It's just like cigarettes. Teenagers don't have any self-regulation. We need to protect the kids."

'Company intentionally hides vital information'

Haugen has come forward with a wide-ranging condemnation of Facebook, buttressed with tens of thousands of pages of internal research documents she secretly copied before leaving her job in the company's civic integrity unit.

She also has filed complaints with federal authorities alleging that Facebook's own research shows that it amplifies hate, misinformation and political unrest, but that the company hides what it knows.

"The company intentionally hides vital information from the public, from the U.S. government and from governments around the world," Haugen said in her written testimony.

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"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."

The ex-employee challenging the social network giant with 2.8 billion users worldwide is a 37-year-old data expert from Iowa with a degree in computer engineering and a master's degree in business from Harvard. She worked for 15 years at companies including Google and Pinterest prior to being recruited by Facebook in 2019.

After recent reports in The Wall Street Journal based on documents she leaked to the newspaper raised a public outcry, Haugen revealed her identity in a 60 Minutes interview that aired on CBS Sunday night.

Allegations are misleading, Facebook says

As the public relations debacle over the Instagram research grew last week, Facebook put on hold its work on a kids' version of Instagram, which the company says is meant mainly for tweens aged 10 to 12.

Haugen also said that Facebook prematurely turned off safeguards designed to thwart misinformation and incitement to violence after Joe Biden defeated Donald Trump in last year's presidential election, alleging that contributed to the deadly Jan. 6 assault on the U.S. Capitol.

After the November election, Facebook dissolved the civic integrity unit where Haugen had been working. That, she says, was the moment she realized "I don't trust that they're willing to actually invest what needs to be invested to keep Facebook from being dangerous."

WATCH | Facebook experiences worldwide outage: Facebook goes down worldwide after allegations of pushing misinformation20 hours agoFacebook, Instagram and WhatsApp were all offline today in a worldwide outage that came just hours after an insider went public with accusations Facebook puts profits ahead of safety and deliberately pushes misinformation and divisiveness on users' news feeds. 2:06

Haugen says she told Facebook executives when they recruited her that she wanted to work in an area of the company that fights misinformation, because she had lost a friend to online conspiracy theories.

Facebook maintains that Haugen's allegations are misleading and insists there is no evidence to support the premise that it is the primary cause of social polarization.

"Even with the most sophisticated technology, which I believe we deploy, even with the tens of thousands of people that we employ to try and maintain safety and integrity on our platform, we're never going to be absolutely on top of this 100 per cent of the time," Nick Clegg, Facebook's vice-president of policy and public affairs, said Sunday on CNN's Reliable Sources.

That's because of the "instantaneous and spontaneous form of communication" on Facebook, Clegg said. "I think we do more than any reasonable person can expect to."

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