Facebook revelations are shocking. But nothing will change until Congress acts

After a roller coaster 24 hours for Facebook — in which a whistleblower lodged damning claims at at the site, its stock fell 5% and the company suffered a more than five-hour outage across its most popular apps — the spotlight has shifted to Congress and what, if anything, lawmakers are willing to do to rein in the social media behemoth.

The upshot of the whistleblower's claim: Facebook not only knows that its platform encourages angry, hateful, demonstrably false content, but it is prioritizing that content to keep readers engaged. The company is choosing "profit over safety," according to Frances Haugen, the former Facebook product manager who worked on civic integrity issues.

Now, Haugen is bringing her case to Washington, pleading with lawmakers not to shut down Facebook or force it to break up — but simply to get serious about regulating it. The reality is that in nearly two decades, Congress has shown it's barely capable of directing Facebook to the bathroom.