Facebook whistleblower to testify at U.S. Senate subcommittee
Global News
The ex-Facebook employee is speaking to a U.S. Senate subcommittee Tuesday after she made revelations of the company’s awareness of apparent harm to some teens from Instagram.
A former Facebook data scientist has stunned lawmakers and the public with revelations of the company’s awareness of apparent harm to some teens from Instagram and her accusations of dishonesty in its fight against hate and misinformation. Now she is coming before Congress.
Frances 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 Facebook’s civic integrity unit. Haugen also has filed complaints with federal authorities alleging that Facebook’s own research shows that it amplifies hate, misinformation and political unrest, but the company hides what it knows.
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 CBS “60 Minutes” interview aired Sunday night. She insisted that “Facebook, over and over again, has shown it chooses profit over safety.”
The ex-employee challenging the social network giant with 2.8 billion users worldwide and nearly US$1 trillion in market value 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 prior to being recruited by Facebook in 2019 at companies including Google and Pinterest.
Haugen is set to testify to the Senate Commerce subcommittee on consumer protection at a hearing Tuesday.
The panel 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.
“And what’s super tragic is Facebook’s own research says, as these young women begin to consume this eating disorder content, they get more and more depressed,” Haugen said in the televised interview. “And it actually makes them use the app more. And so, they end up in this feedback cycle where they hate their bodies more and more.”
Five more countries and the Palestinian Authority were added to the list of countries facing a full ban on travel to the U.S., while new limits were imposed on 15 other countries.
The couple were Bondi locals and described by their loved ones as an 'honest' and 'hardworking' couple who were 'devoted' to their family.
A statement issued by the National Council of Canadian Muslims says the delegation was barred from entry by Israeli authorities as 'public safety threats.'
The lawsuit, filed in a Florida court, seeks $5 billion in damages for defamation and $5 billion for unfair trade practices.
Lai, a former media mogul and outspoken critic of Beijing, was found guilty Monday of violating Hong Kong's stringent, China-imposed national security law.
U.S. officials said talks in Berlin led to narrowing differences on security guarantees that Kyiv said must be provided, as well as on Moscow’s demand that Ukraine concede land.
Ahmed Al Ahmed jeopardized his life when he tackled one of two alleged shooters to the ground and seized his gun during Sunday’s attack on a Jewish gathering on Bondi Beach.
'They passed directly in our flight path.... They don’t have their transponder turned on. It’s outrageous,' the JetBlue pilot said in a conversation with air traffic control.
At least 11 people were shot and killed on Sunday during a Jewish holiday celebration at Sydney’s Bondi Beach, Australian authorities said, declaring it a terrorist attack.
The victim was walking about 200 metres ahead of a friend near an area known as the '560-meter rocky peak,' when the friend heard a cry for help.
Thomas Plamberger and his girlfriend, Kerstin Gurtner, were attempting to scale Austria's tallest mountain in the middle of winter, despite her inexperience.
The Canadian economy achieved a trade surplus for the first time since the trade war began, as exports rebounded and imports fell in September, according to Statistics Canada.
The development has frustrated deportations of foreign nationals accused of fuelling B.C.'s extortion boom.