Ex-Facebook staffer says company misled investors about misinformation

Two new Facebook whistleblower complaints filed with SEC claim social media giant MISLED investors about its efforts to combat climate change and COVID misinformation

  • Ex-Facebook employee Frances Haugen filed new SEC complaints this month alleging the company misled investors on COVID and climate misinformation
  • The pair of complaints build on a case filed by former employee Haugen last year, that alleges the company spread false or divisive information
  • The complaints allege Facebook made ‘material misrepresentations and omissions in statements to investors’ about campaigns to quell misinformation
  • Other complaints were the company was aware of a negative impact Instagram has on teen girls, and that it helped contribute to violence in developing nations
  • The complaints draw from tens of thousands of internal documents that Haugen took before leaving the company in May 

Facebook whistleblower Frances Haugen filed two new SEC complaints this month alleging the company misled investors about the company’s efforts to counter COVID and climate misinformation, redacted documents have revealed. 

The pair of complaints against the social media giant build on a case filed by former employee Haugen last year, that alleges the company, now Meta, knowingly spread false or divisive information.  

Other complaints leveled in the suit were that the company was aware of a negative impact its platform Instagram has on teen girls, and that it helped contribute to violence in developing countries.  

The complaints draw from tens of thousands of internal documents that Haugen took before leaving the company in May.      

The new complaints, uncovered by The Washington Post, allege Facebook made ‘material misrepresentations and omissions in statements to investors’ about the company’s campaigns to quell misinformation on their platform.

The new allegations come after whistleblower Frances Haugen, pictured, testified before Congress earlier this month over Facebook’s failings

In one of the new filings, ex-Facebook project manager Haugen, who worked for the company’s civic integrity department until she resigned due to concerns the company was prioritizing ‘profits over safety,’ alleges Facebook officials did nothing about climate change misinformation prominently displayed on their site, despite executives calling it a ‘global crisis’ and promising to address it during earnings calls.

The complaint also alleged that the company lacked a clear policy on the issue.

 

Facebook Whistleblower Frances Haugen’s testimony to Congress

During a Senate Commerce subcommittee hearing on October 5, Whistleblower Frances Haugen called for transparency about how Facebook entices its users to keep scrolling on its apps, and the harmful effect it can have on users.

‘As long as Facebook is operating in the shadows, hiding its research from public scrutiny, it is unaccountable,’ said Haugen, a former product manager on Facebook’s civic misinformation team. She left the nearly $1 trillion company with tens of thousands of confidential documents.

‘The company’s leadership knows how to make Facebook and Instagram safer, but won’t make the necessary changes because they have put their astronomical profits before people. Congressional action is needed,’ Haugen said.

Haugen revealed she was the person who provided documents used in a Wall Street Journal and a Senate hearing on Instagram’s harm to teenage girls. She compared the social media services to addictive substances like tobacco and opioids.

Before the hearing, she appeared on CBS television program ’60 Minutes,’ revealing her identity as the whistleblower who provided the documents.

‘There were conflicts of interest between what was good for the public and what was good for Facebook,’ she said during the interview. ‘And Facebook over and over again chose to optimize for its own interests like making more money.’

Haugen, who previously worked at Google and Pinterest, said Facebook has lied to the public about the progress it made to clamp down on hate speech and misinformation on its platform.

She added that Facebook was used to help organize the Capitol riot on January 6, after the company turned off safety systems following the U.S. presidential elections.

While she believed no one at Facebook was ‘malevolent,’ she said the company had misaligned incentives.

In response to Haugen’s bombshell comments, a Facebook executive accused her of stealing company documents and claimed she is ‘not an expert’ on the company’s content algorithms.

Facebook Vice President of Content Policy Monika Bickert spoke out in an interview with Fox News on, slamming Haugen a day after she testified to Congress.

Bickert said that Haugen ‘mischaracterized’ the internal studies regarding the harmful impacts of content on Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp, which she presented to to Congress.

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