The person behind the leak of series of shocking Facebook documents that led to public outrage on the social media giant has finally revealed her identity on the '60 Minutes' show.
Together we can create social media that brings out the best in us. We solve problems together - we don’t solve them alone.
— Frances Haugen (@FrancesHaugen_) October 4, 2021
The former Product Manager on the Civic Misinformation team at Facebook, Frances Haugen, said in the interview on Sunday by CBS that during her time at the job she grew alarmed 'by the choices the company makes prioritizing their own profits over public safety and putting people's lives at risk'.
Haugen told 60 Minutes: "The thing I saw at Facebook over and over again was there were conflicts of interest between what was good for the public and what was good for Facebook, and Facebook over and over again chose to optimize for its own interests, like making more money".
The 37-year-old resorted to anonymously release tens of thousands of pages of internal research and documents with the Wall Street Journal that clearly show that the platform was aware of the harm it causes and the negative effects of misinformation.
Then she made the courageous decision to show her identity.
The leaked documents showed that 32% of girls surveyed on Instagram reported that when they felt bad about their bodies which hint that this is the reason behind the sudden halt of the Instagram kids app. The most shocking revelation was the fact that Facebook’s algorithm is designed to intentionally make users angry by showing them things that upsets them.
On Tuesday, Haugen is expected to testify before a Senate subcommittee in a hearing titled "Protecting Kids Online".
Also, the slides reported that some high-profile celebrities, politicians were treated differently by the social media giant who is actually facing a complex lawsuit from a group of its own shareholders, the BBC reported.
Yesterday, Bloomberg reported that Facebook’s head of global policy Nicky Clegg has prepared employees for the expected charges of the whistleblower in a memo on Friday: “I know some of you – especially those of you in the U.S. – are going to get questions from friends and family about these things. So I wanted to take a moment as we head into the weekend to provide what I hope is some useful context on our work in these crucial areas.”
