Identity of Facebook whistleblower revealed 0:47
(CNN Business) -
The former Facebook employee whose leaks sparked one of the most intense scrutiny in the company's history revealed her identity Sunday night.
Frances Haugen, a former Facebook product manager who has also worked at several other large tech companies, appeared in public on the "60 Minutes" show.
Haugen will testify Tuesday before a US Senate subcommittee.
This is what we know about her so far.
Background
Haugen grew up attending Iowa caucuses or caucuses with his parents, according to his personal website.
That experience instilled "a strong sense of pride in democracy and responsibility for civic participation," the website adds.
After studying electrical and computer engineering, followed by an MBA, Haugen worked at various tech companies beginning in 2006, including Google, Pinterest, and Yelp.
He specializes in "algorithmic product management" and has worked on several ranking algorithms similar to the one Facebook uses to organize its main news source, according to his prepared testimony obtained by CNN on Monday.
She is scheduled to appear Tuesday before the Senate Subcommittee on Consumer Protection, Product Safety and Data Security.
"Having worked at four major technology companies that operate different types of social media, I have been able to compare and contrast how each company addresses and addresses different challenges," he wrote in his prepared testimony.
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Disillusioned with Facebook
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Haugen, 37, joined Facebook in 2019 to work on civic integrity, including "issues related to democracy and disinformation," according to his website.
Those issues have been highlighted by critics of Facebook and other social media companies, particularly around the coronavirus pandemic and the 2020 U.S. presidential election.
Haugen took the job at Facebook to work on tackling misinformation, he said in his "60 Minutes" interview.
But he explained that his feelings about the company began to change when the company decided to disband its civic integrity team shortly after the election.
She suggested that this decision, in part, allowed the platform to be used to help organize the January 6 riot at the US Capitol.
Facebook says the civic integrity team's work was distributed to other units when it was disbanded, and company executives rejected allegations that it was responsible for the disturbances on Capitol Hill.
Haugen's disclosures are also important because they come as lawmakers, regulators and activists around the world have repeatedly criticized the company for not doing enough to protect its hundreds of millions of users.
"I joined Facebook ... because someone close to me became radicalized online," he told the Senate subcommittee in his comments.
"I felt compelled to take an active role in creating a better, less toxic Facebook."
But for most of the two years, he said he began to feel that Facebook was not as committed to ensuring its products promoted the public good.
"What I saw on Facebook over and over again was that 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, such as making more money. "he said to" 60 minutes ".
In his statement to the Senate subcommittee on Tuesday, Haugen criticized Facebook's creation of a "system that amplifies division, extremism and polarization" around the world.
"Facebook became a $ 1 trillion company by paying its profits with our security, including the security of our children," he wrote.
"And that is unacceptable."
What he did
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About a month ago, Haugen filed at least eight complaints with the Securities and Exchange Commission, alleging that the company is hiding the investigation into its shortcomings from investors and the public.
Haugen also shared the documents with The Wall Street Journal, which published multi-part research showing Facebook was aware of problems with its apps, including the negative effects of misinformation and the harm done, especially to girls, by Instagram.
"Every day, our teams have to balance protecting the ability of billions of people to express themselves openly with the need to keep our platform a safe and positive place," Facebook spokeswoman Lena Pietsch said in a reported to CNN Business after the interview on "60 Minutes."
"We continue to make significant improvements to address the spread of misinformation and harmful content. To suggest that we encourage inappropriate content and do nothing is simply not true."
Haugen resigned from Facebook in April this year and left the company in May after handing in some projects, according to a profile in The Wall Street Journal, but not before compiling the documents that would form the basis of the publication's investigation.
"If people just hate Facebook more for what I did, then I failed," he told the newspaper.
"I believe in truth and reconciliation, we have to admit reality. The first step is documentation."
What comes next?
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On Tuesday, Haugen will testify in front of the Senate subcommittee chaired by Democratic Senator Richard Blumenthal.
The subcommittee last week questioned Facebook's global chief security officer, Antigone Davis, about the impact its apps have on younger users.
Davis sought to paint the company's services, particularly Instagram, as more helpful than harmful to teens.
"That doesn't mean that those who don't [find it useful] aren't important to us. In fact, that's why we do this research," he said.
Those lawmakers will now hear Haugen firsthand and have the opportunity to question her about what she experienced within Facebook.
The company has vigorously rejected the claims of its former employees, including with a statement of more than 700 words on Sunday night in which it exposed what it called "missing facts" of the segment "60 minutes" and said that the interview "used select company materials to report a misleading story about the research we do to improve our products. "
But it seems likely that his revelations will cause more than just a ripple effect on Facebook.
The company has faced scrutiny from regulators and governments around the world for years, and the pressure on it continues to mount every week.
Despite dealing with the continuing fallout from Haugen's disclosures, as well as a widespread disruption of its main services for several hours on Monday, Facebook attempted to dismiss an antitrust complaint from the Federal Trade Commission accusing it of being a monopoly. .
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Haugen says the only way to hold Facebook accountable is to reveal its inner workings the way she did.
"I stepped forward because I recognized a terrifying truth: hardly anyone outside of Facebook knows what goes on inside Facebook," he wrote to the Senate committee on Monday.
"As long as Facebook operates in the dark, it is accountable to no one. And it will continue to make decisions that go against the common good."
- Clare Duffy and Donie O'Sullivan of CNN Business contributed to this report.
