Facebook can’t get out of the hot seat.
Facebook whistleblower Frances Haugen, a former employee, released more documents over the weekend to news outlets that show the company is aware of many of the harms its apps cause, but fails to act, either neglecting to address the issues or struggling to figure out how.
On top of this, a new whistleblower has submitted an affidavit stating that the company also prioritizes profits over mitigating dangerous, hateful and harmful content on its site. The newest whistleblower is reportedly a former member of Facebook’s Integrity team.
The latest releases by Haugen span across multiple issues that Facebook has failed to act on, including misinformation groups, the Jan. 6 insurrection on the Capitol, rising extremism, election fraud, hate speech and more. The new whistleblower’s affidavit claims that Facebook failed to prioritize, and possibly even undermined efforts, in tackling hate speech and misinformation.
All of this comes as Haugen prepares to be questioned by British MPs in Westminster on Monday afternoon. Haugen will speak with the lawmakers looking at a new online safety bill, which imposes a duty of care on social media companies.
The internal documents provide a rare glimpse into how Facebook mishandled the Jan. 6 insurrection, failing to recognize the issue that started and spread across their own platform. An internal report following the riot found the platform’s policies and procedures were simply not enough to combat “stop the steal” pages, misinformation sources, and violent comments.
The new leak shows how employees were both shocked and outraged after the insurrection. Facebook continues to claim it is not responsible for the actions of the rioters.
The documents show that by summer 2020, Facebook was hosting thousands of private QAnon groups with millions of followers. QAnon, a notorious misinformation and conspiracy rightwing group, has since been banned on the platform.
Haugen recently testified in Congress about how Facebook prioritizes profit over public safety, following internal company reports she leaked about how Instagram has known for years the damage it does to teenagers’ mental wellbeing.
Reports also include details that Facebook’s Public Policy team had a “whitelist” for publishers who were exempted from platform policy about spreading misinformation, and included the rightwing site Breitbart News.
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