The identity of the person who discovered tens of thousands of pages of searches and internal documents - which provoked strong reactions against Facebook - was revealed in the program "60 Minutes".
Her name is Frances Haugen, a former Facebook product manager who has worked on the company's civic integrity issues. Documents provided by her and published by the Wall Street Journal show that Facebook knows that the company's platforms have been used to spread hatred, violence and misinformation, but the company has tried to hide the evidence.
On the program, Haugen discussed her decision to talk about the tech giant's internal work, saying she was alarmed by the company's policies.
"There were conflicts of interest between what was good for the public and what was good for Facebook," Haugen said. "And Facebook, over and over again, chose to opt for its own interests, how to make more money."
Haugen pointed out that the documents she collected and shared with the Wall Street Journal show that Facebook is lying to the public by saying it is making significant progress against hatred, violence and misinformation. "The Facebook version that exists today is tearing our societies apart and causing ethnic violence around the world," she said.
Haugen said he was recruited to join Facebook in 2019 after spending more than a decade working in the tech industry, including Pinterest and Google.
"No one on Facebook is malicious," Haugen said. Mark Zuckerberg "has never decided to create a platform of hatred," she said.
"Facebook has realized that if they change the algorithm to be more secure, people will spend less time on the page, click on fewer ads, and [Facebook] will make less money," Haugen said.
The case will be tried and Haugen has been summoned to testify before Congress on Tuesday. In a written statement to the Wall Street Journal, Facebook spokesman Andy Stone said, "To suggest that we encourage bad content and do nothing is simply not true."
Sources: Guardian, CNN
