Facebook Whistleblower Says Company Chooses Profits Over Users' Safety
October 05 2021 - 10:04AM
Dow Jones News
By John D. McKinnon
In her prepared testimony, Frances Haugen says Facebook Inc.
consistently chooses its own profits over users' safety, and keeps
users and regulators in the dark about its actions.
"This is not simply a matter of some social media users being
angry or unstable," she says in prepared remarks reviewed by The
Wall Street Journal. "Facebook became a $1 trillion company by
paying for its profits with our safety, including the safety of our
children. And that is unacceptable."
Facebook "hides behind walls that keep the eyes of researchers
and regulators from understanding the true dynamics of the system.
We have to just trust what Facebook says is true-and they have
repeatedly proved that they do not deserve our blind faith," she
says.
She calls on Congress to act.
"The severity of this crisis demands that we break out of
previous regulatory frames," she says. "Tweaks to outdated privacy
protections or changes to Section 230 will not be sufficient."
In a written statement, Facebook spokesman Andy Stone said,
"Every day our teams have to balance protecting the right of
billions of people to express themselves openly with the need to
keep our platform a safe and positive place. We continue to make
significant improvements to tackle the spread of misinformation and
harmful content. To suggest we encourage bad content and do nothing
is just not true."
Write to John D. McKinnon at john.mckinnon@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
October 05, 2021 09:49 ET (13:49 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2021 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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