Facebook whistleblower Frances Haugen urged a US Congress panel not to get into a debate about social media regulations that have been blocked by partisan combat.
Haugen's leaks of internal company documents sparked outrage, damning press reports and pledges from elected officials to take action against the platforms, but so far no new rules have been enacted.
Haugen told a House of Representatives panel about Big Tech accountability that Facebook wants to have analysis, to get stuck in false choices and not act here.
Facebook wants to get caught up in a long debate about the minutiae of different legislative approaches. She said that you don't fall into that trap.
A series of articles underpinned by the leaked documents argued that Facebook, which changed its name to Meta in October, knew its sites could harm some of their billions of users - but executives chose growth over safety.
Social media giant has pushed fiercely back against the press reports as selectively using its research to paint a dark vision of the company's work.
We need to have a set of updated rules for the internet set by Congress that companies should follow, which is why we've been asking for this for nearly three years, Meta said in a statement.
The US lawmakers have put forth new or updated legislative proposals after the scandal, but efforts to regulate social media in the United States have lagged technology's advances and been stymied by partisan divides.
The platforms speech limits stifle conservative voices, while Democrats worry about the harms of misinformation online, according to Republican lawmakers.
Representative Jeff Duncan, a Republican, said the companies have already gone too far, despite the partisan differences on the question of limiting speech on social media.
Social media platforms need to check themselves and understand that they are not gods with a little g, he said. We've seen an unprecedented onslaught from Big Brother tech on conservative thought over the past few years.