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Whistleblower Haugen: "I read threat analyzes about people talking about my mother on the dark web"
Photo: MICHELE TANTUSSI / REUTERS
After going public, Frances Haugen worries about her safety. "What I'm most afraid of is probably not Facebook," said the whistleblower of the dpa news agency. "It's that there are a lot of people who benefit from the way the system works today." She feared that these people might spread rumors about her that would radicalize anyone, the 37-year-old said. "I think there is the possibility that someone could believe conspiracy theories about me and harm me." On Twitter, she comes across extreme ideas about herself. She is also concerned about her family: "I read threat analyzes about people talking about my mother on the dark web."
Haugen sees the attention after her revelations, which is concerned with her privacy, as "surreal". The former Facebook employee is currently in the headlines worldwide because she downloaded a large collection of internal Facebook documents and made them available to the US Congress, authorities and selected media. According to Haugen, that information shows that the group puts profits above the well-being of its users. Internal references to developments harmful to users have been ignored, according to Haugen. Facebook rejects their allegations.
As a so-called whistleblower who denounces misconduct, Haugen enjoys protection under US law.
Since she left Facebook in the spring, she claims to have been living on her savings - which were sufficient thanks to early investments in cryptocurrency, among other things.
"I could go on like this for 20 years, if not forever," she said.
She is legally represented by the Whistleblower Aid organization free of charge and is grateful for the support of more than 1000 donors.
"We need enough data for the public to understand these systems"
Haugen calls on politicians to gain a better understanding of how online networks work.
"We need enough data for the public to understand these systems," she said.
To do this, companies would have to be obliged to provide information on a regular basis - »roughly weekly, daily«.
Haugen criticized Facebook deliberately withholding important data from the public - this made it difficult to understand the mechanisms of the online network.
"Because today the only people who can research Facebook work at Facebook, we never got the chance to build such an infrastructure."
"The problem with Facebook is not bad people or bad ideas," says Haugen.
More decisive is the reinforcement role of today's systems, which "distribute the most extreme content to most people".
But this can be turned off: "I think there are simple political measures that can change the incentives in these companies." This includes Haugen biannual risk analyzes that online companies would have to create for their service - and for which regulatory authorities should obtain independent assessments .
mbö / dpa
