Join our daily newsletter At The Bell to receive exclusive market insights
- A former Facebook employee has revealed herself as the whistleblower whose research leak sparked an investigation by The Wall Street Journal
- Frances Haugen appeared on ’60 Minutes’ on Sunday and is due to testify before a Senate subcommittee on Tuesday
- The hearing, titled ‘Protecting Kids Online’, will look at Facebook’s effect on the mental health of young users
- Last week, Antigone Davis, Facebook’s global head of safety, testified to US senators and disputed The Wall Street Journal’s portrayal
- According to her LinkedIn page, Haugen was a product manager at Facebook for more than two years
A former Facebook employee revealed herself on Sunday as the whistleblower who leaked a trove of internal research documents that served as the basis of an investigation by The Wall Street Journal.
The leak led to a Senate hearing and a new wave of criticism over the negative impacts of the social media behemoth’s apps, particularly Instagram.
Frances Haugen appeared on the US television show ’60 Minutes’ and is due to testify before a Senate subcommittee on Tuesday in a hearing titled ‘Protecting Kids Online’, which will examine Facebook’s effect on the mental health of young users.
Last week, Antigone Davis, Facebook’s global head of safety, testified to US senators and disputed The Wall Street Journal’s portrayal of the research, pointing to other findings she said showed the app’s positive impact on teens.
“This research is a bombshell,” Democratic Senator Richard Blumenthal said during the hearing.
“It is powerful, gripping, riveting evidence that Facebook knows of the harmful effects of its site on children, and that it has concealed those facts and findings.”
Ms Davis, however, noted that children under 13 were not allowed to use Facebook, and said 0.5 per cent of teens in the company’s research connected their “suicidal ideation” to Instagram, lower than the figures reported by The Wall Street Journal.
“You’ve cherry-picked part of the research that you think helps your spin right now,” said Republican Senator Ted Cruz, demanding that Facebook commit to releasing its full research on the ties between Instagram and youth suicide.
According to her LinkedIn page, Haugen was a product manager at Facebook for more than two years. She has also worked in similar roles at Google, Pinterest and Yelp.
Haugen said she’d seen problems at other social media companies, but “it was substantially worse at Facebook than anything I’d seen before.”
