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Frances Haugen

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American engineer and whistleblower
Frances Haugen
BornIowa City, Iowa, U.S.
EducationOlin College (BS)
Harvard University (MBA)
Occupation(s)Data engineer, product manager
Websitefranceshaugen.com

Frances Haugen is an American data engineer and scientist, product manager, and whistleblower. She disclosed tens of thousands of Facebook's internal documents to the Securities and Exchange Commission and Wall Street Journal in 2021.

Early life and education

Haugen was born and raised in Iowa City, Iowa, where she attended Iowa City West High School. Her father was a doctor and her mother became an Episcopalian priest after an academic career.

Haugen studied computer science and electrical engineering in the founding class at the Franklin W. Olin College of Engineering, and graduated in 2006. She later earned a Master of Business Administration from Harvard Business School in 2011.

Career

After graduating college, Haugen was hired by Google, and she worked on Google Ads, Google Book Search, a class action litigation settlement related to Google publishing book content, as well as Google+. During her career at Google, she completed her MBA, which was paid for by Google. She has said she is a co-founder of the desktop dating app Secret Agent Cupid, precursor to the mobile app Hinge.

In 2015, she began work as a data product manager at Yelp to improve search using image recognition, and after a year, moved to Pinterest. In 2018, when Facebook recruited Haugen, she expressed interest in a role related to misinformation, and in 2019, she became a product manager in the Facebook civic integrity department. While at Facebook, she decided it was important to become a whistleblower, and left her position at Facebook in May 2021. In the spring of 2021, she contacted John Tye, a founder of the nonprofit law firm Whistleblower Aid, for help, and Tye agreed to represent her and to help protect her anonymity. In the late summer of 2021, she began meeting with members of the United States Congress, including Senator Richard Blumenthal and Senator Marsha Blackburn.

Facebook Civic Integrity revelations

Beginning in September 2021, The Wall Street Journal published The Facebook Files, "based on a review of internal Facebook documents, including research reports, online employee discussions and drafts of presentations to senior management." The investigation is a multi-part series, with nine reports including an examination of exemptions for high-profile users, impacts on youth, the impacts of its 2018 algorithm changes, weaknesses in the response to human trafficking and drug cartels, vaccine misinformation, and Haugen, who gathered the documents that supported the investigative reports.

Haugen disclosed her identity as the whistleblower when she appeared on 60 Minutes on October 3, 2021. During the interview, Haugen discussed the Facebook program known as Civic Integrity, which was intended to curb misinformation and other threats to election security. According to Haugen, the program was dissolved after the 2020 election, and she said, "that really feels like a betrayal of democracy to me," and the dissolution contributed to the 2021 United States Capitol attack. Haugen also discussed "The thing I saw at Facebook over and over again was there were conflicts of interest between what was good for the public and what was good for Facebook. And Facebook, over and over again, chose to optimize for its own interests, like making more money."

Impact

At least eight complaints have been filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) by Haugen's attorneys, covering topics reported by The Wall Street Journal and including how Facebook handles political misinformation, hate speech, teenage mental health, human trafficking, the promotion of ethnic violence, preferential treatment for certain users, and its communications with investors. In one of the whistleblower complaints with the SEC, Haugen has alleged Facebook misled investors. Haugen has also shared documents with members of the United States Congress and offices of attorneys general, but not the Federal Trade Commission.

Facebook market capitalization dropped by six billion dollars within 24 hours of Haugen's 60 Minutes interview on October 3, 2021, and after the Facebook outage on October 4, 2021. Based on the leaked documents, Kevin Roose, writing for the New York Times, suggested Facebook may be weaker than it appears.

On October 5, 2021, Haugen testified before the United States Senate Commerce Committee Sub-Committee on Consumer Protection, Product Safety, and Data Security. A written version of her opening statement to the U.S. Senate subcommittee was published on October 4, 2021. Haugen is scheduled to testify before the Parliament of the United Kingdom, and during the October 5 hearing, indicated that she is also in communication with another U.S. congressional committee about issues related to espionage and disinformation.

See also

References

  1. "Ex-Facebook manager Frances Haugen, an Iowa City native, alleges social network fed Capitol riot". The Gazette. Associated Press. October 4, 2021. Retrieved October 5, 2021.
  2. Horwitz, Jeff (October 3, 2021). "The Facebook Whistleblower, Frances Haugen, Says She Wants to Fix the Company, Not Harm It". Wall Street Journal. ISSN 0099-9660. Retrieved October 4, 2021.
  3. ^ Milmo, Dan (October 4, 2021). "How losing a friend to misinformation drove Facebook whistleblower". The Guardian. Retrieved October 5, 2021.
  4. ^ Finley, Klint (October 19, 2015). "Yelp's Using Image Search to Change How It Finds You a Bar". Wired. ISSN 1059-1028. Retrieved October 4, 2021.
  5. ^ DeWitte, Dave (August 17, 2011). "Iowa City native Frances Haugen credits grade school enrichment program for success". The Gazette. Retrieved October 5, 2021.
  6. "Alumni Create Angel Investment Group to Fund Olin Grads' Startups | Olin College of Engineering". www.olin.edu. December 11, 2017. Retrieved October 4, 2021.
  7. ^ Pelley, Scott (October 4, 2021). "Whistleblower: Facebook is misleading the public on progress against hate speech, violence, misinformation". CBS News. Retrieved October 4, 2021.
  8. ^ Mac, Ryan (October 5, 2021). "Who is Frances Haugen, the Facebook whistle-blower?". The New York Times. Retrieved October 5, 2021.
  9. ^ Taliesin, Julia (October 4, 2021). "3 things to know about Facebook whistleblower Frances Haugen". Boston.com. Retrieved October 5, 2021.
  10. Feiner, Lauren (October 3, 2021). "Facebook whistleblower reveals identity, accuses the platform of a 'betrayal of democracy'". NBC News. Retrieved October 5, 2021.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  11. ^ Zakrzewski, Cat; Lima, Cristiano (October 4, 2021). "Former Facebook employee Frances Haugen revealed as 'whistleblower' behind leaked documents that plunged the company into scandal". Washington Post. ISSN 0190-8286. Retrieved October 4, 2021.
  12. ^ Mac, Ryan; Kang, Cecilia (October 5, 2021). "Whistle-Blower Says Facebook 'Chooses Profits Over Safety'". The New York Times. Retrieved October 5, 2021.
  13. Kang, Cecilia (October 5, 2021). "How did we get here?". The New York Times. Retrieved October 5, 2021.
  14. ^ "The Facebook Files: A Wall Street Journal Investigation". The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved October 5, 2021.
  15. Paul, Kari; Milmo, Dan (October 4, 2021). "Facebook putting profit before public good, says whistleblower Frances Haugen". The Guardian. Retrieved October 5, 2021.
  16. Milmo, Dan (October 5, 2021). "Facebook whistleblower accuses firm of serially misleading over safety". The Guardian. Retrieved October 5, 2021.
  17. Rodriguez, Salvador (October 4, 2021). "Facebook shares drop nearly 5% after major site outage and whistleblower interview". CNBC. Retrieved October 5, 2021.
  18. O'Connell, Oliver (October 5, 2021). "Facebook stock nosedive costs Zuckerberg $6bn as whistleblower interview and service outage rattle investors". The Independent. Retrieved October 5, 2021.
  19. Roose, Kevin (October 4, 2021). "Facebook Is Weaker Than We Knew". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved October 5, 2021.
  20. "In their own words: 'Facebook's products harm children, stoke division, weaken our democracy.'". The New York Times. October 5, 2021. Retrieved October 5, 2021.
  21. Lima, Cristiano (October 5, 2021). "Whistleblower hearing draws massive turnout from senators". The Washington Post. Retrieved October 5, 2021.
  22. Smith, David (October 5, 2021). "'Moral bankruptcy': whistleblower offers scathing assessment of Facebook". The Guardian. Retrieved October 5, 2021.
  23. "Statement of Frances Haugen October 4, 2021". Whistleblower Aid. The Washington Post. October 4, 2021. Retrieved October 5, 2021.
  24. Levine, Alexandra S.; Rafford, Claire; Arciga, Julia; Birnbaum, Emily (October 5, 2021). "Whistleblower to Senate: Don't trust Facebook". Politico. Retrieved October 5, 2021.
  25. Frenkel, Sheera (October 5, 2021). "Key takeaways from Facebook's whistle-blower hearing". The New York Times. Retrieved October 5, 2021.

External links

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