Ex-Facebook manager criticizes company, urges more oversight

By MARCY GORDON and BARBARA ORTUTAY

WASHINGTON (AP) — While accusing the elephantine societal web of pursuing profits implicit safety, a erstwhile Facebook information idiosyncratic told Congress Tuesday she believes stricter authorities oversight could alleviate the dangers the institution poses, from harming children to inciting governmental unit to fueling misinformation.

Frances Haugen, testifying to the Senate Commerce Subcommittee connected Consumer Protection, presented a wide-ranging condemnation of Facebook. She accused the institution of failing to marque changes to Instagram aft interior probe showed evident harm to immoderate teens and being dishonest successful its nationalist combat against hatred and misinformation. Haugen’s accusations were buttressed by tens of thousands of pages of interior probe documents she secretly copied earlier leaving her occupation successful the company’s civic integrity unit.

But she besides offered thoughtful ideas astir however Facebook’s societal media platforms could beryllium made safer. Haugen laid work for the company’s profits-over-safety strategy close astatine the top, with CEO Mark Zuckerberg, but she besides expressed empathy for Facebook’s dilemma.

Haugen, who says she joined the institution successful 2019 due to the fact that “Facebook has the imaginable to bring retired the champion successful us,” said she didn’t leak interior documents to a paper and past travel earlier Congress successful bid to destruct the institution oregon telephone for its breakup, arsenic galore user advocates and lawmakers of some parties person called for.

Haugen is simply a 37-year-old information adept from Iowa with a grade successful machine engineering and a master’s grade successful concern from Harvard. Prior to being recruited by Facebook, she worked for 15 years astatine tech companies including Google, Pinterest and Yelp.

“Facebook’s products harm children, stoke part and weaken our democracy,” Haugen said. “The company’s enactment knows however to marque Facebook and Instagram safer but won’t marque the indispensable changes due to the fact that they person enactment their astronomical profits earlier people.”

“Congressional enactment is needed,” she said. “They won’t lick this situation without your help.”

Democrats and Republicans person shown a uncommon unity astir the revelations of Facebook’s handling of imaginable risks to teens from Instagram, and bipartisan bills person proliferated to code societal media and data-privacy problems. But getting authorities done Congress is simply a dense slog. The Federal Trade Commission has taken a stricter stance toward Facebook and different tech giants successful caller years.

“Whenever you person Republicans and Democrats connected the aforesaid page, you’re astir apt much apt to spot something,” said Hans.

Haugen suggested, for example, that the minimum property for Facebook’s fashionable Instagram photo-sharing level could beryllium accrued from the existent 13 to 16 oregon 18.

She besides acknowledged the limitations of imaginable remedies. Facebook, similar different societal media companies, uses algorithms to fertile and urge contented to users’ quality feeds. When the ranking is based connected engagement — likes, shares and comments — arsenic it is present with Facebook, users tin beryllium susceptible to manipulation and misinformation. Haugen would similar the ranking to beryllium chronological. But, she testified, “People volition take the much addictive enactment adjacent if it is starring their daughters to eating disorders.”

Haugen said a 2018 alteration to the contented travel contributed to much divisiveness and sick volition successful a web ostensibly created to bring radical person together.

Despite the enmity that the caller algorithms were feeding, she said Facebook recovered that they helped support radical coming backmost — a signifier that helped the societal media elephantine merchantability much of the integer ads that make the immense bulk of its revenue.

Haugen said she believed Facebook didn’t acceptable retired to physique a destructive platform. “I person a immense magnitude of empathy for Facebook,” she said. “These are truly hard questions, and I deliberation they consciousness a small trapped and isolated.”

But “in the end, the subordinate stops with Mark,” Haugen said, referring to Zuckerberg, who controls much than 50% of Facebook’s voting shares. “There is nary 1 presently holding Mark accountable but himself.”

Haugen said she believed that Zuckerberg was acquainted with immoderate of the interior probe showing concerns for imaginable antagonistic impacts of Instagram.

The subcommittee is examining Facebook’s usage of accusation its ain researchers compiled astir Instagram. Those findings could bespeak imaginable harm for immoderate of its young users, particularly girls, though Facebook publically downplayed imaginable antagonistic impacts. For immoderate of the teens devoted to Facebook’s fashionable photo-sharing platform, the adjacent unit generated by the visually focused Instagram led to intelligence wellness and body-image problems, and successful immoderate cases, eating disorders and suicidal thoughts, the probe leaked by Haugen showed.

One interior survey cited 13.5% of teen girls saying Instagram makes thoughts of termination worse and 17% of teen girls saying it makes eating disorders worse.

She besides has filed complaints with national authorities alleging that Facebook’s ain probe shows that it amplifies hate, misinformation and governmental unrest, but that the institution hides what it knows.

After caller reports successful The Wall Street Journal based connected documents she leaked to the paper raised a nationalist outcry, Haugen revealed her individuality successful a CBS “60 Minutes” interrogation aired Sunday night.

As the nationalist relations debacle implicit the Instagram probe grew past week, Facebook enactment connected clasp its enactment connected a kids’ mentation of Instagram, which the institution says is meant chiefly for tweens aged 10 to 12.

Haugen said that Facebook prematurely turned disconnected safeguards designed to thwart misinformation and incitement to unit aft Joe Biden defeated Donald Trump successful past year’s statesmanlike election, alleging that doing truthful contributed to the deadly Jan. 6 battle connected the U.S. Capitol.

After the November election, Facebook dissolved the civic integrity portion wherever Haugen had been working. That was the moment, she said, erstwhile she realized that “I don’t spot that they’re consenting to really put what needs to beryllium invested to support Facebook from being dangerous.”

Haugen says she told Facebook executives erstwhile they recruited her that she wanted to enactment successful an country of the institution that fights misinformation, due to the fact that she had mislaid a person to online conspiracy theories.

Facebook maintains that Haugen’s allegations are misleading and insists determination is nary grounds to enactment the premise that it is the superior origin of societal polarization.

“Today, a Senate Commerce subcommittee held a proceeding with a erstwhile merchandise manager astatine Facebook who worked for the institution for little than 2 years, had nary nonstop reports, ne'er attended a decision-point gathering with (top) executives – and testified much than six times to not moving connected the taxable substance successful question. We don’t hold with her characterization of the galore issues she testified about,” the institution said successful a statement.

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Associated Press writers Matt O’Brien successful Providence, Rhode Island, and Amanda Seitz successful Columbus, Ohio, contributed to this report.

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Follow Marcy Gordon astatine https://twitter.com/mgordonap.