Facebook has had a terrible couple of weeks and now it looks like its month is about to get even worse. The company has had to contend with leaked internal research documents, two US Senate hearings, and a massive outage that knocked its apps and services offline for about six hours. Now it seems whistleblower Frances Haugen is further adding to Facebook’s stress levels by cooperating with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), a UK parliamentary committee, and Facebook's Oversight Board.
Haugen, a former Facebook product manager, downloaded internal research documents before she left the firm in May 2021. Haugen subsequently shared the research findings with The Wall Street Journal and CBS’ 60 Minutes, highlighting several issues including how Instagram may have a negative impact on some teenagers and the way Facebook handles high-profile accounts. Following the revelations, Senators from both sides of the aisle have said they plan to take regulatory action, and now UK lawmakers also want to hear from Haugen. Haugen’s lawyers are also talking with the SEC about what Facebook knew and when it knew it. Amidst all of this, Facebook suffered a global outage last week, leaving its billions of users without access to its suite of apps.
Facebook Under Fire
The UK Parliament’s Joint Committee on the draft Online Safety Bill says it will speak with Haugen on October 25. Committee chair Damian Collins says Haugen has “strengthened the case for an independent regulator” to oversee the activities of Facebook and other Big Tech firms. It’s of note that Collins oversaw a committee that investigated Facebook and the Cambridge Analytica scandal. At the time, there were many contentious exchanges between British lawmakers and the social media firm, particularly after Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg refused to provide testimony.
Haugen has also confirmed she will speak with Facebook’s independent Oversight Board to discuss what she learned about the company while there. Facebook previously told the Oversight Board only some VIP accounts were subject to additional leniency regarding its platform rules, a process dubbed “cross-check.” Haugen says Facebook has lied “repeatedly” to the Oversight Board, with leaked documents showing cross-check was applied to millions of pieces of content.
With regard to the SEC, it’s unclear just what the agency is probing, but as Facebook is a publicly-traded company, it has a legal responsibility to ensure it is being truthful about risks to its business. If Facebook has identified problems that could impact its bottom line, it’s supposed to disclose those issues to the public. It remains to be seen if the firm has maintained its duties. With everything Facebook will face over the coming weeks and months, a huge global outage affecting billions of users might have been the simplest problem to deal with.