Whistleblower to Congress: Address Facebook's "Moral Bankruptcy"

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WHISTLEBLOWER TO CONGRESS: ADDRESS FACEBOOK’S “MORAL BANKRUPTCY”

On Tuesday, we witnessed Facebook whistleblower Frances Haugen’s watershed congressional testimony, further illuminating the systemic harms resulting from persuasive tech’s unchecked power to manipulate individuals and communities. As Frances said:

“Facebook is stuck in a feedback loop they cannot get out of. They've been hiding this information because they feel trapped. They would come forward if they had solutions to these things. They need to admit they did something wrong and they need help to solve these problems. That's what moral bankruptcy is.”
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A CALL FOR BIPARTISAN ACTION

Frances gave concrete examples of potential changes and suggested that Facebook’s closed system has given them “the opportunity to hide their problems, and like people often do when they can hide their problems, they get in over their heads.” This, she said, is Congress’s opportunity to step in and say, “You can declare moral bankruptcy and we can figure out how to fix things together. Because we solve problems together, we don't solve them alone.”

She implored the senators to take action: “When we realized Big Tobacco was hiding the harms it caused, the government took action. When we figured out cars were safer with seat belts, the government took action. And when our government learned that opioids were taking lives, the government took action.”
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EXPLORING SOLUTIONS TOGETHER

As part the testimony, Frances outlined a number of potential solutions. We're excited to share that Frances will be joining us as a guest on our podcast Your Undivided Attention to discuss these solutions and more in a special episode coming soon.

Additionally, Frances Haugen will join be speaking at a solutions-oriented Yale-hosted virtual event "The Facebook Files: What's Next?" tomorrow, Thursday, October 7 at 6pm EDT. Learn more about the event below. We encourage you to register if you can make it.

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