Former Facebook employee Frances Haugen has just caused a stir with revelations. Today she testified before the US Senate and called for political intervention.
A former Facebook employee who became a whistleblower has called for public insights into the functioning of the online network in the US Senate.
“Facebook shapes our perception of the world through the selection of the information we see,” said Frances Haugen at a hearing on Tuesday.
So far, however, only the Internet company itself knows how to personalize the users’ newsfeed. And Facebook denies researchers and regulators access to it. Some of the mechanisms have the potential to trigger addictive behavior, especially in younger users, warned Haugen in Washington. She accuses Facebook and the photo platform Instagram, among other things, of putting profits above the well-being of the user.
Haugen called for political intervention: “Facebook will continue to make decisions of its own accord that go against the public good.” In the United States, her accusation that Facebook knew from internal studies that Instagram was damaging to the mental health of some teenagers, but did not take consistent action against it, sparked outrage.
The 37-year-old was on Facebook for around two years, previously on Google and the photo platform Pinterest. At the online network, she worked, among other things, to ward off attempts to manipulate the public before elections. During her appearance on the Senate Trade Subcommittee, she warned that Facebook’s attempts to use software to filter out hate speech and harmful content were not efficient enough. Facebook always points out that the systems are getting better and better at removing prohibited content even before users see it.
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