Facebook has been all over the news lately; from it’s recent announcement about a full rebrand to “Meta” and inflammatory whistleblower claims. The SEC is facing mounting public pressure to investigate several disclosures made against the social media giant after former Facebook employee, Frances Haugen, denounced the company for hiding it’s knowledge of how its algorithms amplify hate speech, misinformation and criminal content on its platforms.
Despite several anonymous whistleblowers sending in tips to the federal government, Haugen’s claims have created a huge stir because of “the trove of private Facebook research she took when she quit in May” reports CBS News. Haugen, who was a data engineer for the company, decided to collect tens of thousands of pages of Facebook internal research before exiting to use as evidence that the company has been lying about its significant progress against hate, violence and misinformation. One of those internal documents she took with her from 2021 states, “we estimate that we may action as little as 3-5% of hate and about 6-tenths of 1% of V & I [violence and incitement] on Facebook despite being the best in the world at it.”
The SEC was brought in because it is allegedly misleading investors by not being “transparent about the risk associated with its failures to address illicit content”. Facebook has aimed to deflect the claims and bury the news under the announcement of it’s name-change to Meta made in October.
“We urge Facebook to publicly state that they will not engage in any retaliation. And if there is retaliation we urge swift government action including a Department of Justice investigation into Facebook for obstruction of justice,” said founding partner, Stephen Kohn, of the whistleblower law firm Kohn, Kohn & Colapinto which has also filed disclosures against the platform.
The S.E.C. has declined to confirm whether or not it is opening an investigation as of date of publication, though many believe such high-profile accusations will not be overlooked. We will continue to monitor the news around the allegations as it develops.