Former Facebook employee exposes the app as ‘harmful’ in ’60 minutes’

Frances Haugen stated on a Sunday night broadcast of 60 Minutes that she was the source of secret papers utilised by the Wall Street Journal in its blockbuster “Facebook Files” series.

She formerly worked as a product manager on Facebook’s civic integrity team, which focused on election concerns, and has previously worked at Pinterest and Google. Facebook disbanded her team in December 2020, just before the January 6 unrest. Haugen left Facebook in April and contacted Whistleblower Aid, according to an article published Sunday by the Journal. According to the charitable group, it gives legal help to “individuals who legitimately disclose government violations.”

We’re proud of Frances for coming forward about what she saw at Facebook. If you want to support Frances and make sure she has the legal support she needs, make a gift to her GoFundMe https://t.co/NkvqmAEWCv https://t.co/yPVtvgDxyU

— Whistleblower Aid (@wbaidlaw) October 3, 2021

She explained how Facebook prioritised development over social responsibility on 60 Minutes, calling the situation “significantly worse” than at other social media firms.

“What I want everyone to know is that Facebook is much, far more harmful than anyone knows, and it’s growing worse,” she added.

She also told 60 Minutes correspondent Scott Pelley that what “Facebook is in other countries” is “horrifying.”

“Each additional language costs more money, but there are fewer and fewer customers,” she said of markets outside the United States. Essentially, when Facebook trains editors and AI in smaller countries with fewer users, it receives less for its money. So, rather of investing in costly infrastructure, Facebook, according to Haugen, allows disinformation to propagate.

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“In other areas of the globe, such disinformation is literally causing people to die,” she explained.

She claimed in a statement to 60 Minutes that it will continue “to significantly increase efforts to combat the spread of misinformation and harmful content. It is just not correct to say that we support harmful content while doing nothing.”

According to Haugen, the team entrusted with combating forced prostitution and slavery at Facebook was made up of only a few investigators.

“I’d wonder why more individuals weren’t employed,” she told the Journal. “Facebook pretended to be helpless in terms of staffing these teams.”