Facebook whistleblower Frances Haugen is testifying before members of the Senate consumer protection subcommittee.
Haugen, a former Facebook product manager tasked with protecting against election interference, leaked documents that led to a damning series of media reports that alleged the company covered up evidence that its products cause harm.
Before leaving Facebook earlier this year, Haugen copied thousands of pages of internal documents — some of which had already been reported on — to back up her claims that the social media giant prioritizes divisive content over safety to garner higher profits.
“The thing I saw at Facebook over and over again was there were conflicts of interest between what was good for the public and what was good for Facebook,” Haugen said earlier this week on CBS’s “60 Minutes.”
“Facebook, over and over again, chose to optimize for its own interests, like making more money,” said Haugen.
Sen. Richard Blumenthal, a Democrat from Connecticut and chairman of the subcommittee, is convening the hearing. Sens. Amy Klobuchar, a Democrat from Minnesota, Ed Markey, a Democrat from Massachusetts, Roy Blunt, a Republican from Missouri and Marsha Blackburn, a Republican from Tennessee, are also in attendance.
Haugen’s leaks led to a series of reports in the Wall Street Journal that alleged Facebook has, among other things, sought to target children in order to grow their user base, concealed internal research that showed its products are harmful for young girls and has exempted certain users from its content-moderation rules.
Facebook, for its part, has disputed the characterization of Haugen’s leaks, insisting that the internal documents were taken out of context.
Nick Clegg, Facebook’s vice president of global affairs, has repeatedly said in media appearances that the very fact that such internal research exists shows the company’s commitment to understanding its impact on society.
“If we didn’t want to address those questions, we wouldn’t commission the research in the first place,” Clegg said Sunday on CNN.
