The identity of the Facebook whistleblower who revealed pages from the company’s confidential research has been revealed to be Frances Haugen. The former product manager at Facebook who managed civic integrity issues at the company says that the documents reveal that Facebook uses the platform to spread hate, misinformation, and violence.
Haugen revealed that while performing her duties, she noted that there were conflicts of interest between what was good for the company and for the public. However, the company prioritized its own interest and profits over anything else.
Haugen has filed eight complaints with the Securities and Exchange Commission alleging that the company is trying to mask its shortcomings and findings from the public and its investors.
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The whistleblower also shared the documents with the Wall Street Journal which published a part of its investigation revealing that the social media company was aware of problems with its apps including the negative effects of the harm and misinformation caused.
Haugen had worked with several tech giants including Pinterest and Google before starting work at Facebook in 2019. She said that she has seen a bunch of social media platforms but finds that things were substantially worse at Facebook than she has ever seen before.
Facebook has aggressively denied all the reports and has even called most of her claims to be misleading.
Lena Pietsch, a Facebook spokesperson released a statement stating that every day the teams are trying to protect the ability of billions of people around the world to express themselves openly on a positive and safe platform.
The company is dedicated to making significant improvements to tackle the spread of harmful content and misinformation. Pietsch even accused Hauger of using selected company materials for sharing a misleading story about the research the company does for improving its offerings.
Haugen further added that the Founder and the CEO of the company, Mark Zuckerberg never started the platform to turn it into a hateful platform. However, he has permitted choices to be made where the side effects of those choices are polarizing and hateful content receive more reach and distribution.
Haugen was hired by the social media company in 2019 and her job required her to work on addressing the misinformation being spread. However, the company soon made a decision to shut down its civic integrity team right after the 2020 presidential election.
This move changed her opinion about the company. She added that the move by the company to turn off misinformation prevention tools allowed the platform to be used to help organize the riot on Capitol Hill on January 6.
To clarify the matter, Facebook said that the civic integrity team’s work was distributed to other units upon its dissolution. The company’s algorithm has been designed to show users the kind of content they are likely to engage with.
One of the consequences of how the platform is picking out the content today is that it is optimizing for content that receives a reaction and engagement. However, its own research is pointing that the content that is polarizing, divisive, and hateful is easier to inspire people.
She further added that the company acknowledges that if the company tweaks its algorithm to be safer, then people would spend less time on the site and would click on fewer ads. This in turn implies that the company would make less profit.
Facebook in its defense stated that the company is all about bringing the people closer together and also focuses on protecting the community rather than its profits. Haugen concluded her interview that no one at Facebook is malevolent but their incentives are actually misaligned.