Facebook whistleblower calls for hold former employer to account

Facebook FB whistleblower Frances Haugen is calling for lawmakers to hold their former employer to account ahead of her testimony to the House Commerce Committee on Wednesday.

The former Facebook employee will testify about how the social media giant, now called Meta, puts revenue above the safety of its users during the hearing on Big Tech's legal immunity.

They can change the name of the company, but unless they change the products, they will continue to damage the health and safety of our communities and threaten the integrity of our democracies, Haugen said in prepared testimony for the Subcommittee on Communications and Technology.

The hearing is scheduled to focus on Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, a controversial law that gives websites broad protection from legal liability for third-party content posted on their sites.

In her testimony ahead of the hearing, Haugen took aim at accusations by Facebook leadership that she misrepresented the meaning of the hundreds of thousands of documents she swiped before she left the social media giant.

Facebook executives said that the documents and studies, which indicate that apps like Instagram have a negative impact on the mental health of some teen girls, should not be interpreted as factual findings. Haugen said that her work for Google GOOG, GOOGL Pinterest PINS Yelp YELP and Facebook gives her insight into Facebook's issues.

Haugen wrote in her testimony about the different ways in which each company approaches and deals with different challenges, as a result of working at four major tech companies that operate different types of social networks.

The choices being made by Facebook's leadership are a huge problem — for our children, our communities and our democracy — that is why I came forward. Let s be clear: it does not have to be this way. Haugen, who had testified before Congress in October, first approached The Wall Street Journal with the documents she took from Facebook, which led to a series of explosive reports showing that Facebook knew that its platform was being used by drug cartels and human traffickers.

The potential impact of Meta's Facebook and Instagram on younger users is something that lawmakers have been interested in. A proposed Instagram for kids, which was to be launched for children under 13 drew widespread backlash, prompting the company to put a hold on the project.

Haugen s testimony comes a week before Instagram chief Adam Mosseri is due to testify before the Senate Commerce Committee on the app and how it affects its youngest users.

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