Facebook has admitted that the 'internet needs regulating' and called on lawmakers to impose 'standard rules' but has hit back against claims by whistleblower Frances Haugen that it puts profits over the safety of its users.
The tech giant slapped down Haugen after she testified to Congress on Tuesday, saying that the data scientist never attended meetings with top executives and that she was wildly misinformed about the company.
Mark Zuckerberg wrote in an open letter to his staff: 'I think most of us just don't recognize the false picture of the company that is being painted.'
Haugen told Capitol Hill how Facebook put its 'astronomical profits' above the safeguarding of its users and that Zuckerberg had been directly involved in decisions that increased 'misinformation, hate speech and other inciting content.'
She said that executives were aware that Facebook and Instagram, which it owns, were harmful for children, with a leaked internal study revealing that teenage girls had increased suicidal thoughts from using Instagram.
The 37-year-old said that Facebook's algorithms, centered around 'likes' and 'shares', rewarded 'dangerous online talk has led to actual violence that harms and even kills people.'
Her claims were devastating for Facebook's public image and prompted senators from across the aisle to attack the firm and Zuckerberg, who has previously been summoned to the Capitol to testify on his firm's practices.
Facebook's director of policy communications, Lena Pietsch, responded to Haugen's testimony by pointing out she worked at the company for less than two years.
Pietsch added that Haugen 'had no direct reports, never attended a decision-point meeting with C-level executives - and testified more than six times to not working on the subject matter in question.'
But Facebook agreed on the need for more regulation.
'It's time to begin to create standard rules for the internet,' Pietsch said.
'It's been 25 years since the rules for the internet have been updated, and instead of expecting the industry to make societal decisions that belong to legislators, it is time for Congress to act.'
In Haugen's blistering testimony she said:
- Mark Zuckerberg is only 'accountable to himself' and has been directly involved in decisions that put profit over 'decreasing misinformation, hate speech and other inciting content'
- Executives are aware that Facebook is harmful for children, with it 'exposing teenagers to anorexia content' and 'pulling families apart'
- A leaked internal Facebook study showed 13.5% of British teenagers said their suicidal thoughts were more frequent because of Instagram (which FB owns)
- Another leaked study found 17% of teen girls said their eating disorders got worse after using Instagram
- The site profits from 'dangerous online talk has led to actual violence that harms and even kills people'
- Facebook covered up the extent to which it knew about the planners of the Capitol siege
- The firm 'hides vital information from the public, from the U.S. government, and from governments around the world'
Mark Zuckerberg on Tuesday evening defended his company, saying it was 'frustrating' to see a 'false picture' of Facebook being painted by Haugen
Frances Haugen on Tuesday appeared before Congress to discuss the workings of Facebook. She suggested a government entity be created to regulate Facebook during the scathing Senate hearing
Zuckerberg said Haugen painted 'a false picture of the company'.
In a memo he sent to all staff, which he posted on Facebook, he wrote: 'I'm sure many of you have found the recent coverage hard to read because it just doesn't reflect the company we know.
'We care deeply about issues like safety, well-being and mental health. It's difficult to see coverage that misrepresents our work and our motives.
'At the most basic level, I think most of us just don't recognize the false picture of the company that is being painted.'
Zuckerberg said it was 'just not true' that the company prioritizes profit over all other concerns, and said it was not in their interests to promote damaging content.
He said the company was doing a lot of work on moderation, and on protecting children.
But Zuckerberg's response was torn apart by lawmakers who agreed that Haugen's claims were backed up by evidence.
Democratic Senator Richard Blumenthal kicked off the hearing by calling Facebook 'morally bankrupt' and criticized Zuckerberg for going sailing in Hawaii with wife Priscilla Chan instead of answering questions from lawmakers.
Senator Ed Markey also piled on the absent tech billionaire, addressing him by name during the hearing to warn him that 'Congress will be taking action' with or without his help.
'Your time of invading privacy, promoting toxic content, and preying on children and teens is over. Congress will be taking action. You can work with us, or not work with us, but we will not allow your company to harm our children and our families and out democracy any longer,' Markey said.
Haugen told senators that no similar company's CEO has as much unilateral control as Zuckerberg does.
'Mark holds a very unique role in the tech industry in that he holds over 55% of all the voting shares for Facebook. There are no similarly powerful companies that are as unilaterally controlled,' she said. 'There's no one currently holding him accountable but himself.'
She said 'the buck stops with' Facebook's tech billionaire owner, adding that 'Facebook needs to take responsibility for the consequences of its choices.'
Later in the hearing Haugen said Zuckerberg himself even made choices that put engagement over public safety.
'We have a few choice documents that contain notes from briefings with Mark Zuckerberg where he chose metrics defined by Facebook like "meaningful social interactions" over changes that would have significantly decreased misinformation, hate speech and other inciting content,' she told Senator Ben Ray Lujan.
Markey lauded Haugen as a 'Twenty-first century American hero' for speaking out against the social media giant.
He also accused Facebook of being built on 'computer codes of misconduct.'
'Time and time again Facebook says one thing and does another. Time and time again Facebook fails to abide by the commitments that they had made. Time and time again, Facebook lies about what they are doing,' he said.
'Facebook's platforms are not safe for young people, as you said Facebook is like big tobacco, enticing young kids with that first cigarette...whistleblowing shows that Facebook uses harmful features.'
During his second round of hearing Markey accused Facebook of using lobbyists to block legislators' reform efforts.
Blumenthal criticized Facebook's founder earlier on in his opening statement on Tuesday morning.
Former Facebook employee and whistleblower Frances Haugen arrives to testify during a Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation hearing on Capitol Hill on Tuesday
Haugen suggested Facebook's self-created burden could have gotten so large that they simply didn't know what to do with it and felt 'trapped'
'Mark Zuckerberg ought to be looking at himself in the mirror today,' the Connecticut Democrat said. 'And yet rather than taking responsibility and showing leadership, Mr. Zuckerberg is going sailing.'
'Mark Zuckerberg you need to come before this committee, you need to explain to Frances Hougan, to us, to the world, and to the parents of America - what you were doing and why you did it.'
Whistleblower Francis Haugen says Facebook has put its 'astronomical profits before people'
Haugen began her testimony with a scathing opening statement accusing Facebook leadership of knowingly allow its products to 'harm children, stoke division and weaken our democracy.'
She celebrated a massive outage that affected Facebook and its related sites.
'Yesterday we saw Facebook get taken off the internet. I don't know why it went down, but I do know for more than five hours, Facebook wasn't used to deepen divides, destabilize democracies and make young girls and women feel bad about their bodies,' Haugen said.
She also said Facebook had done too little to prevent its platform from being used by people planning violence, claiming executives chose profit over safety whenever possible.
'The company's leadership knows ways to make Facebook and Instagram safer but won't make the necessary changes because they have put their astronomical profits before people,' she claimed.
The result of which, she said, 'has been more division, more harm, more lies, more threats and more combat. In some cases, this dangerous online talk has led to actual violence that harms and even kills people.'
Haugen acknowledged that problems with social media were incredibly complex - citing her experience working at four different social media platforms.
'However, the choices being made inside Facebook are disastrous - for children, for public safety, for our privacy and for our democracy - that is why I came forward. And let's be clear: it doesn't have to be this way. We are here today because of deliberate choices Facebook has made,' she said.
Haugen calls for government to step in and regulate Facebook
The whistleblower acknowledged that the site's mounting problems could be too large for it to handle on its own.
'You can declare moral bankruptcy and we can figure out how to fix these things together, because we solve problems together and we don't solve them alone,' she said.
She suggested Facebook's self-created burden could have gotten so large that they simply didn't know what to do with it.
'Facebook is stuck in a feedback loop they cannot get out of. They have been hiding this information because they feel trapped. Like, they would have come forward if they had solutions to these things. They need to admit they did something wrong, and that they need help to solve these problems.'
But she also doubted that Facebook's lack of solutions came from a lack of 'private research' as an executive once said.
'If they make $40 billion per year, they have the resources to solve these problems, they're choosing not to solve them,' she told Senator Rick Scott.
Haugen told Republican Senator Mike Lee that Facebook's artificial intelligence systems designed to filter out harmful content were relatively ineffective at catching hate speech - and even sometimes allowed drug-related content to get to kids.
'The reality is that we've seen from repeated documents within my disclosures, is that Facebook's AI systems only catch a very tiny minority of offending content. And best case scenario, and the case of something like hate speech, at most they will ever get 10 to 20 percent. In the case of children, that means drug paraphernalia ads like that, it's likely if they rely on computers and not humans, they will also likely never get more than 10 to 20 percent of those ads,' she said.
She suggested a social media-specific regulatory body within the government as a possible solution at several points in the hearing.
Haugen claimed oversight could 'make Facebook a more profitable company five or 10 years from now' and would be 'kinder, friendlier and more collaborative.'
She said such an agency is 'in everyone's interest.'
Until such regulation, the whistleblower warned, Facebook won't move to change on its own.
'Until incentives change at Facebook, we should not expect Facebook to change. We need action from Congress,' she said.
And such action may be coming - Markey promised during his allotted time that 'Congress will take action.'
Facebook responds to Haugen's claims during the hearing
A Facebook executive went after Haugen during the hearing, pointing out that she did not work with the data she was testifying on at the hearing.
'Just pointing out the fact that @FrancesHaugen did not work on child safety or Instagram or research these issues and has no direct knowledge of the topic from her work at Facebook,' Policy Communications Director Andy Stone wrote on Twitter Tuesday.
Senator Marsha Blackburn responded to Stone's tweet during the hearing.
'I will simply say this to Mr. Stone: If Facebook wants to discuss their targeting of children, if they want to discuss their practices of privacy invasion or violation of the Children's Online Privacy Act, I am extending to you an invitation to step forward, be sworn in and testify before this committee. We would be pleased to hear from you and welcome your testimony,' Blackburn said.
Haugen has said multiple times during the hearing that she didn't work in child safety but claimed the documents she viewed and leaked were available to all staff.
Stone later released a statement from Facebook's Director of Policy Communications Lena Pietsch. Pietsch dismissed Haugen as an ex-employee 'who worked for the company for less than two years' but agreed with her calls for more internet regulation.
'Today, a Senate Commerce subcommittee held a hearing with a former product manager at Facebook who worked for the company for less than two years, had no direct reports, never attended a decision-point meeting with C-level executives - and testified more than six times to not working on the subject matter in question,' the statement read.
Pietsch did agree with Hauge that Congress needed to act on reforms for any meaningful change to occur.
'We don't agree with her characterization of the many issues she testified about. Despite all this, we agree on one thing; it's time to begin to create standard rules for the internet. It's been 25 years since the rules for the internet have been updated, and instead of expecting the industry to make societal decisions that belong to legislators, it is time for Congress to act,' she said.
Facebook's Global Head of Safety Antigone Davis, who testified before the same panel last week, defended her company in an MSNBC interview during the hearing.
'Of course we want to allow for freedom of expression, but one of the underlying principles behind the work that we do is ensuring people's safety and security. Most people really do feel quite safe and secure on our platform, and they’re coming back and using our platform because they do feel safe and secure, and we are doing a good job to get that content off. But I do think there are validation systems that people want in place,' she said.
Davis, faced a barrage of criticism from senators on the Commerce panel at a hearing last Thursday. They accused Facebook of concealing the negative findings about Instagram and demanded a commitment from the company to make changes.
Davis defended Instagram's efforts to protect young people using its platform. She disputed the way The Wall Street Journal story describes what the research shows.
Facebook maintains that Haugen's allegations are misleading and insists there is no evidence to support the premise that it is the primary cause of social polarization.
'Even with the most sophisticated technology, which I believe we deploy, even with the tens of thousands of people that we employ to try and maintain safety and integrity on our platform, we´re never going to be absolutely on top of this 100% of the time,' Nick Clegg, Facebook´s vice president of policy and public affairs, said Sunday on CNN´s 'Reliable Sources.'
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