Desk Report
Publish: 02 Nov 2021, 04:24 pm
Facebook whistleblower Frances Haugen || Photo: Collected
Facebook whistleblower Frances Haugen said Monday she
believes the company would be "stronger" if founder Mark Zuckerberg
stepped down as chief executive, reports CNN.
"I think it is unlikely the company will change if he
remains CEO," she said during an on-stage interview at the Web Summit tech
conference in Lisbon. "I hope that he can see that there's so much good he
can do in the world, and maybe it's a chance for somebody else to take the
reins."
Haugen added: "I think Facebook would be stronger with
someone who was willing to focus on safety."
Haugen set off the latest firestorm around Facebook (FB) —
which changed its corporate name last week to Meta — when she leaked tens of
thousands of pages of internal company documents to the Securities and Exchange
Commission, lawmakers and the Wall Street Journal. Last month, a consortium of
news organizations, including CNN, also obtained the documents, now known as
the "Facebook Papers," and published scores of articles.
The documents provide the deepest look yet at many of the
company's biggest problems, including how hate speech and misinformation are
amplified on the platform, how coordinated groups are able to use its apps to
cause real-world violence and harm, and how its lack of non-English language
capabilities has endangered users in politically unstable parts of the world.
For its part, Facebook-turned-Meta has repeatedly pushed
back on Haugen's claims and said the documents she leaked provide a skewed
image of the company's research and efforts.
"At the heart of these stories is a premise which is
false. Yes, we're a business and we make profit, but the idea that we do so at
the expense of people's safety or wellbeing misunderstands where our own
commercial interests lie," Facebook spokesperson Andy Stone told CNN in a
statement last month. The company did not immediately respond to a request for
comment on this article.
Lawmakers have asked Zuckerberg to testify before Congress,
and some tech safety advocates have called for a leadership change at the
social media giant. However, it doesn't appear Zuckerberg is planning to step
down anytime soon.
Instead, Zuckerberg announced the new name in a somewhat
bizarre, highly animated event last week intended to tout the company's
ambitious plans for the "metaverse" and perhaps turn the page from
the PR crises sparked by Haugen and the documents. The metaverse refers to
efforts by Facebook and other companies to combine virtual and augmented
reality technologies in a new online realm.
Shortly after the announcement, Zuckerberg's job title on
his personal Facebook page changed to: "Founder and CEO at Meta."
Asked by The Verge after the announcement if he would remain
CEO at Facebook/Meta in the next five years, Zuckerberg said: "Probably. I
don't have a specific date how long I want to be doing this for. I guess what I
could say is I'm very excited about the next chapter of what we're doing."
Last month, Facebook said it would hire 10,000 people in the
European Union to help build the metaverse. During the interview Monday, Haugen
criticized the move and called the company's plans to invest in the metaverse
before solving its real-world safety problems "unconscionable."
"Over and over again, Facebook chooses expansion in new
areas over sticking the landing on what they've already done," she said.
"As you read through the documents it states very clearly that there needs
to be more resources on very basic safety systems. And instead of investing in
making sure that their platforms are a minimal level of safe, they're about to
invest 10,000 engineers in video games. And I can't imagine how this makes
sense."
Meta spokesperson Joe Osborne called Haugen's comment
"a ludicrous comparison and a false choice."
"It is not as though a company can only build new
technology or invest in keeping people safe," Obsorne said in a statement
to CNN Business. "Obviously, we can and must do both of these things at
the same time - and we are."
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