Facebook whistleblower Frances Haugen has finally revealed her identity, and she didn’t mince words bashing the company in her first interview.
The whistleblower behind the massive Facebook leaks targeting the company’s questionable moves regarding the ill-effects of its platforms has finally come out in the open, blasting the company for repeatedly choosing profit over the safety of its users. The internal material shared by the whistleblower led to some bombshell findings, such as a two-tiered system for enforcing content policies that put celebrities and influential personalities on a higher pedestal and meted out more lenient treatment. Moreover, internal research proved that the company was aware of the drug and human trafficking problem on its platform, but its response was far from adequate.
The company reportedly made a payment of around $5bn (£3.65bn) to the US Federal Trade Commission as part of a settlement with the agency to protect Mark Zuckerberg in wake of the Cambridge Analytica privacy scandal. More importantly, leaked internal research slides revealed that the company knew about the ill effects of Instagram, especially among female teens struggling with body acceptance issues and social pressure. Facebook has since called the investigation biased and refuted some of the claims, but it has already attracted intense scrutiny from lawmakers who are now planning to launch a probe into the company.
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