A Facebook whistleblower has shared that the social media giant chose its own interests whenever there was a conflict between something that benefited Facebook and public safety. Frances Haugen, a data scientist, was identified as the Facebook whistleblower on Sunday night.
Haugen was identified during a "60 Minutes" interview after she anonymously filed complaints with federal law enforcement. The complaints said that the company's own research proved that it magnified hate and misinformation.
Haugen joined Facebook in 2019 after working with Google and Pinterest, she said. After she was hired, she asked to work in an area of the company that fights misinformation since she lost a friend over online conspiracy theories, The Associated Press reported.
Haugen will testify before Congress this week, and she shared that she hopes the government will put regulations in place to govern the company's activities.
"Facebook, over and over again, has shown it chooses profit over safety," she said.
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Haugen went on to say that the company prematurely turned off safeguards designed to thwart misinformation surrounding Joe Biden's victory over Donald Trump. She alleged that this contributed to the deadly Jan. 6 invasion of the U.S. Capitol.
Since the election, the company has dissolved its unit on civic integrity where Haugen was working; she shared that this was the moment the company lost her trust.
"I don't trust that they're willing to actually invest what needs to be invested to keep Facebook from being dangerous," she said.
The primary issue is the social media companies' algorithms that select hateful content more frequently than any other content. It created a new algorithm in 2018, the content flow contributed to more divisiveness on its platform instead of its original plan to bring people together.
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By continuing to feed users hateful content, Facebook has been able to sell more of its digital ads as it found users continued to come back with the content they were being given.
Since 2018 the company's annual revenue has more than doubled from $56 billion to a projected $119 billion this year. The company/s market value has soared as well, from $375 billion at the end of 2018 to nearly $1 trillion now.
Since the episode of "60 Minutes," the major social media sites that the company runs, Instagram, WhatsApp, and Facebook, have been experiencing issues, with users being unable to log on.
With Haugen's interview, the company will continue to be under fire, as it was already in the spotlight with lawmakers and regulators scrutinizing its immense power online and how it shapes opinions and affects society.
