Whistleblower Says Facebook is Misleading the Public, Has 'Misaligned' Priorities
AllSides Summary
A data scientist and former Facebook employee accused the Big Tech company of privatizing profit over the public good in an interview with 60 Minutes Sunday night. Frances Haugen, who left the Facebook in May after it disbanded her unit that was assessing misinformation on the platform, said that "Facebook, over and over again, chose to optimize for its own interests, like making more money." She added that "No one at Facebook is malevolent, but the incentives are misaligned." Haugen is scheduled to testify in Congress Tuesday. The interview followed a series of reports by the Wall Street Journal (Center bias) detailing Facebook's negative impact on teen mental health, neglect towards harmful issues with its algorithms and other scandals, for which a then-unidentified Haugen provided internal documents. Facebook's head of global safety testified before a Senate subcommittee last week and was questioned about the Journal's reports.
The story was covered similarly across the spectrum. Some headlines from left-rated sources highlighted Haugen's mention of Facebook's role in the Jan. 6 Capitol riot.
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From the Right
Facebook Whistleblower Says Company ‘Paying For Its Profits With Our Safety’
Facebook knowingly chooses to prioritize its profits over the safety of its users, Frances Haugen, a whistleblower and former Facebook employee, said in an interview with “60 Minutes” on Sunday.
“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,” Haugen told Scott Pelley on “60 Minutes” Sunday night. “And Facebook, over and over again, chose to optimize for its own interests, like making more money.”
Haugen, a former Facebook product manager, leaked...
From the Center
Frances Haugen, Facebook Whistleblower: 5 Fast Facts You Need to Know
Frances Haugen is a former Facebook employee who revealed herself as the whistleblower who provided private research documents to The Wall Street Journal for its Facebook Files project. Haugen was a product manager at Facebook until May 2021 and has worked for several major tech and social media companies during her 15-year career. Haugen revealed her identity during an interview with CBS’ 60 Minutes on Sunday, October 3, 2021.
The 37-year-old Haugen wrote on her website that in 2019 she, “was recruited to Facebook to be the lead Product Manager on the Civic Misinformation team which...
From the Left
Whistleblower: Facebook is misleading the public on progress against hate speech, violence, misinformation
Her name is Frances Haugen. That is a fact that Facebook has been anxious to know since last month when an anonymous former employee filed complaints with federal law enforcement. The complaints say Facebook's own research shows that it amplifies hate, misinformation and political unrest—but the company hides what it knows. One complaint alleges that Facebook's Instagram harms teenage girls. What makes Haugen's complaints unprecedented is the trove of private Facebook research she took when she quit in May. The documents appeared first, last month, in the Wall Street Journal....
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