[ad_1]
(CNN) – The former Facebook employee whose leaks triggered one of the most intense examinations in the company’s history revealed his identity Sunday night.
Francoise Haugen, a former Facebook product manager with stints at several other big tech companies, went public with an appearance on “60 Minutes.”
Here’s what we know about her so far.
Background
Haugen grew up attending Iowa caucuses with her parents, she says personal website. This experience instilled “a strong sense of pride in democracy and responsibility for civic participation,” the website added.
After studying electrical and computer engineering, followed by an MBA, Haugen worked in several technology companies from 2006, including Google, Pinterest and Yelp. She specializes in “algorithmic product management” and has worked on several ranking algorithms similar to the one used by Facebook to organize its main news feed, according to her. prepared testimony obtained by CNN on Monday. She is scheduled to appear Tuesday before the Senate subcommittee on consumer protection, product safety and data security.
“Working at four large tech companies that operate different types of social media, I was able to compare and contrast how each company approaches and deals with different challenges,” she wrote in her prepared testimony.
Disappointed on Facebook
Haugen, 37, joined Facebook in 2019 to work on civic integrity, including “issues with democracy and disinformation,” according to his website. These issues have been at the center of criticism from Facebook and other social media companies, particularly around the coronavirus pandemic and the 2020 US presidential election.
Haugen took the job at Facebook to fight disinformation, she said in her “60 Minute” interview. But she said her feelings about the company started to change when she decided to disband her civic integrity team shortly after the election.
She suggested that this move, in part, allowed the platform to be used to help organize the January 6 riot on Capitol Hill.
Facebook says the civic integrity team’s work was distributed to other units when it disbanded, and company executives have rebuffed accusations it was responsible for the Capitol Hill riot.
Haugen’s revelations are also significant because they come as lawmakers, regulators and activists around the world have repeatedly criticized the company for not doing enough to protect its hundreds of millions of users.
“I joined Facebook… because a loved one radicalized online,” she said in her comments to the Senate subcommittee. “I felt compelled to take an active role in creating a better, less toxic Facebook.”
But over the past two years, she said she has started to feel that Facebook is not so committed to ensuring that its products contribute to the public good.
“What I saw on Facebook over and over was that there was a conflict of interest between what was good for the public and what was good for Facebook, and Facebook chose over and over again to ‘optimize for her own interests, like earning more money, “she said “60 minutes”.
In his statement to the Senate subcommittee on Tuesday, Haugen criticized Facebook’s creation of a “system that amplifies division, extremism and polarization” around the world.
“Facebook has become a trillion dollar business by paying for its profits with our safety, including the safety of our children,” she wrote. “And this is unacceptable.”
What she did
About a month ago, Haugen filed at least eight complaints with the Securities and Exchange Commission alleging the company is hiding research into its shortcomings from investors and the public.
Haugen also shared the documents with the Wall Street Journal, which published a multi-part survey showing that Facebook was aware of the issues with its apps, including the negative effects of misinformation and the damage done, especially to young girls, by Instagram.
“Every day, our teams must balance protecting the ability of billions of people to speak out openly with the need to keep our platform a safe and positive place,” said Facebook spokesperson Lena Pietsch, in a statement to CNN Business after Sunday’s “60 minutes”. maintenance. “We continue to make significant improvements to combat the spread of disinformation and harmful content. To suggest that we encourage bad content and do nothing is just not true.
Haugen resigned from Facebook in April this year and left the company in May after handing over some projects, according to a profile in the Journal, but not before having assembled the documents that would serve as a basis for the publication’s investigation.
“If people hate Facebook more because of what I did, then I failed,” she told the Journal. “I believe in truth and reconciliation – we have to face reality. The first step is documentation.
What happens next
On Tuesday, Haugen will testify before the Senate subcommittee chaired by Democratic Senator Richard Blumenthal.
The subcommittee last week asked Facebook’s global chief security officer Antigone Davis about the impact of its apps on young users. Davis sought to portray the company’s services, particularly Instagram, as more useful than harmful to teens.
“Now that does not mean that those who are not [finding it helpful] are not important to us. In fact, that’s why we’re doing this research, ”she said.
These lawmakers will now hear Haugen firsthand and have the opportunity to ask her about her experience on Facebook.
The company strongly rebuffed the claims of its former employee, including a more than 700-word statement Sunday night exposing what it called “missing facts” from the “60-minute” segment and claiming the interview “had used selected company materials to tell a misleading story about the research we are doing to improve our products.
But his revelations seem likely to cause more than just a ripple effect for Facebook. The company has been under intense scrutiny from regulators and governments around the world for years, and the pressure on it continues to intensify every week.
Even though it dealt with the continuing fallout from Haugen’s revelations as well as a general breakdown of its main services for several hours on Monday, Facebook sought to dismiss an antitrust complaint by the Federal Trade Commission accusing it of being a monopoly.
Haugen says the only way to hold Facebook accountable is to reveal its inner workings like it has.
“I came forward because I recognized a frightening truth: hardly anyone outside of Facebook knows what’s going on inside Facebook,” she wrote to the Senate committee on Monday. “As long as Facebook is operating in the dark, it is not accountable to anyone. And he will continue to make choices that go against the common good.
– Clare Duffy and Donie O’Sullivan of CNN Business contributed to this report.
[ad_2]
Source link