Ex-Facebook employee brings sharp criticisms to Congress

By MARCY GORDON

WASHINGTON (AP) — A erstwhile Facebook information idiosyncratic connected Tuesday brought to Congress her accusations that the institution hid its consciousness of evident harm to immoderate teens from Instagram and has been dishonest successful its combat against hatred and misinformation.

Frances Haugen came guardant with a wide-ranging condemnation of Facebook, buttressed with tens of thousands of pages of interior probe documents she secretly copied earlier leaving her occupation successful Facebook’s civic integrity unit. Haugen besides has filed complaints with national authorities alleging that Facebook’s ain probe shows that it amplifies hate, misinformation and governmental unrest, but 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. She insisted that “Facebook, implicit and implicit again, has shown it chooses nett implicit safety.”

The ex-employee challenging the societal web elephantine with 2.8 cardinal users worldwide and astir $1 trillion successful marketplace worth 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. She worked for 15 years anterior to being recruited by Facebook successful 2019 astatine companies including Google and Pinterest.

Haugen testified Tuesday to the Senate Commerce Subcommittee connected Consumer Protection.

The sheet is examining Facebook’s usage of accusation from its ain researchers connected Instagram that could bespeak imaginable harm for immoderate of its young users, particularly girls, portion it publically downplayed the 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.

“And what’s ace tragic is Facebook’s ain probe says, arsenic these young women statesman to devour this eating upset content, they get much and much depressed,” Haugen said successful the televised interview. “And it really makes them usage the app more. And so, they extremity up successful this feedback rhythm wherever they hatred their bodies much and more.”

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.

The senators are anxious to perceive from Haugen.

“I look guardant to asking her follow-up questions astir wherefore Facebook hasn’t taken enactment to hole problems connected its platforms, adjacent erstwhile its ain interior probe reflects monolithic problems,” Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., a subordinate of the subcommittee, told The Associated Press connected Monday. “I privation to sermon however Facebook’s algorithms beforehand harmful and divisive content, and however overmuch Facebook truly profits disconnected of our children.”

At contented are algorithms that govern what shows up connected users’ quality feeds, and however they favour hateful content. 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, 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 astir of its revenue.

Haugen’s criticisms scope beyond the Instagram situation. She said successful the interrogation that Facebook prematurely turned disconnected safeguards designed to thwart misinformation and incitement to unit aft Joe Biden defeated Donald Trump past year, alleging that 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, she said, was the infinitesimal she realized “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 had asked 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.

Antigone Davis, Facebook’s caput of planetary safety, faced a barrage of disapproval from senators connected the Commerce sheet astatine a proceeding past Thursday. They accused Facebook of concealing the antagonistic findings astir Instagram and demanded a committedness from the institution to marque changes.

Davis defended Instagram’s efforts to support young radical utilizing its platform. She disputed the mode The Wall Street Journal communicative describes what the probe shows.

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.

“Even with the astir blase technology, which I judge we deploy, adjacent with the tens of thousands of radical that we employment to effort and support information and integrity connected our platform, we’re ne'er going to beryllium perfectly connected apical of this 100% of the time,” Nick Clegg, Facebook’s vice president of argumentation and nationalist affairs, said Sunday connected CNN’s “Reliable Sources.”

That’s due to the fact that of the “instantaneous and spontaneous signifier of communication” connected Facebook, Clegg said, adding, “I deliberation we bash much than immoderate tenable idiosyncratic tin expect to.”

By coming forward, Haugen says she hopes it volition assistance spur the authorities to enactment regulations successful spot for Facebook’s activities. Like chap tech giants Google, Amazon and Apple, Facebook has for years enjoyed minimal regularisation successful Washington.

Separately Monday, a monolithic planetary outage plunged Facebook, Instagram and the company’s WhatsApp messaging level into chaos, lone gradually dissipating by precocious Monday Eastern time. For immoderate users, WhatsApp was moving for a time, past not. For others, Instagram was moving but not Facebook, and truthful on.

Facebook didn’t accidental what mightiness person caused the outage, which began astir 11:40 a.m. EDT and was inactive not fixed much than six hours later.

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