Facebook employee since 2019 in the “civic integrity” department, Frances Haugen left the Californian giant last May, taking with her many internal documents that she sent to the Wall Street Journal. The leak of these documents, and what they reveal, had challenged many American citizens and elected officials. This Sunday, the whistleblower appeared for the first time with her face uncovered in the show 60 Minutes, broadcast by CBS. She must also be heard this Tuesday by the Committee on Commerce of the US Senate. This Sunday, Democratic Senator Richard Blumenthal, member of the committee, paid tribute to the courage of the whistleblower.
The former product engineer points out in particular the responsibility of Facebook in the assault on Capitol Hill last January by pro-Trump activists. What is the relationship between this insurgency, which killed 5 people, and the social network? Let’s rewind. Before the US presidential election in November 2020, Facebook changed its algorithms to reduce the spread of false information. It was Frances Haugen’s service that ensured that certain users or content did not interfere with the smooth running of the elections.
“Priority to growth rather than safety”
But according to the whistleblower, “as soon as the election was over,” the group reconfigured them as before, “to prioritize growth over safety,” she said in his interview on the show 60 minutes, on CBS. “There were conflicts of interest between what was good for the public, and what was good for Facebook,” insisted Frances Haugen, and the group, “one occasion after another, chose to put their interests first, that is to say, make more money ”.
Critically, she believes the situation at Facebook is “significantly worse” than among other social networks where she has worked, such as Pinterest or the dating site Hinge. For Frances Haugen, it was following the return to old algorithms that many Facebook users were able to use the platform to mobilize for the events of January 6, which led to the intrusion on the Capitol.
“Too easy” for Nick Clegg
In anticipation of the broadcast of this interview, the vice-president of the group Nick Clegg went to try to limit the damage on the CNN channel. The former British Deputy Prime Minister considered “too easy to seek a technological explanation for the political polarization in the United States”. Responsibility for “the insurgency” at the seat of Congress “lies with those who inflicted the violence and those who encouraged it, including the President. [Donald] Trump, ”he says.
Nick Clegg also wanted to respond to another aspect of the revelations allowed by the leak of documents, concerning Instagram, which Facebook owns. An investigation, revealed by the Wall Street Journal, showed that 32% of teenage girls felt that using Instagram had given them a more negative body image when they were already unhappy with it. “Our research or that of anyone else simply does not support the fact that Instagram is bad or toxic for all teens,” defends the vice president of the group. “I don’t find it surprising, intuitively, that if you don’t already feel good about yourself, going on social media can make you feel a little less good,” he adds.
Towards a regulation of Facebook?
Under pressure, the Californian company announced that it was suspending the development of a version of Instagram for children under 13, but it did not give up. Nick Clegg also acknowledged that Facebook should try to “figure out how [il] contributes to negative and extreme content, hate speech and disinformation ”. “Facebook’s actions clearly show that it will not reform on its own,” Senator Blumenthal responded in a statement. “We need to consider stricter regulation. “
Frances Haugen also admits that “no one at Facebook is malicious”. For her, Mark Zuckerberg, co-founder and CEO of Facebook, has never sought to make Facebook a hate platform, “but he allowed choices to be made”, promoting the dissemination of hateful content.