Data scientist Frances Haugen stepped forward as the whistleblower who filed complaints with federal law enforcement as a former employee of the company. The complaint alleged that Facebook research shows that it amplifies hate, misinformation and political unrest, but the site is hiding what it knows.
After quitting the company in May, Haugen released a trove of private Facebook research documents that later appeared in The Wall Street Journal. She claims that Facebook continuously chooses the good of the company over the good of the greater public.
Haugen then explained why she decided to file a complaint, stating, "Imagine you know what's going on inside of Facebook and you know no one on the outside knows. I knew what my future looked like if I continued to stay inside of Facebook, which is person after person after person has tackled this inside of Facebook and ground themselves to the ground."
She then added, "When we live in an information environment that is full of angry, hateful, polarizing content it erodes our civic trust, it erodes our faith in each other, it erodes our ability to want to care for each other, the version of Facebook that exists today is tearing our societies apart and causing ethnic violence around the world."
You can hear more, including Haugen speaking about Facebook allegedly picking an algorithm that shows content that angers users because they found it keeps people on the site longer, above.
