In an interview, Facebook whistleblower Frances Haugen said that the embattled Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg should step down because the company would be stronger under a leader who is willing to focus on safety. Haugen — a data scientist who worked as a product manager at Facebook’s Civic Integrity group — is the architect behind the massive leak of internal documents that revealed some extremely alarming decision-making at the company.

About a month ago, Haugen revealed her identity as the Facebook whistleblower and claimed that the company has repeatedly favored profitability over the safety of users hooked to the social media platforms it owns. Haugen divulged that conflict of interest is a repeating pattern at the company, but its top leadership has historically taken the side of making money rather than taking steps to fix the issues plaguing its products. For example, leaked internal documents revealed that the company knew about Instagram’s ill effects on the mental health of its teen users, but the company did next to nothing to solve those problems.

Related: Facebook Refused To Stop COVID Misinformation Because It Would Hurt Traffic

Further leaks made it clear that the company’s top brass has the final say in matters where profits and safety came head to head. Their proclivity to choose the former led many to question whether the current leadership is fit to continue in their respective roles. In an interview at the ongoing Web Summit in Lisbon, Haugen was asked whether she thinks Mark Zuckerberg should step down from his role. After initially skirting around the question, Haugen replied that it is unlikely that the company will change if Zuckerberg continues in his role as the CEO of Facebook — now known as Meta. She added that Facebook would be stronger under the leadership of someone willing to focus on safety.

Meta Will Be Stronger Under Different Leadership

Mark Zuckerberg talking

Haugen also touched on how the move towards building a metaverse and hiring thousands of people for the task is problematic because the company is not prioritizing fixing the existing issues. Last week, Zuckerberg told the world his vision of a metaverse at the Facebook Connect event with some flashy presentations of a futuristic and more immersive internet. However, not many are pleased with the company’s move towards becoming a metaverse-first company, calling it a rushed decision to elbow into a space where smaller names have already been making metaverse products for a while.

The Facebook whistleblower further noted that making mistakes in the past doesn’t necessarily make Zuckerberg a bad person, but continuing to make the same mistakes over and over again is unacceptable. Speaking with British lawmakers earlier this week, Haugen mentioned that the company lacks the will to make changes to make its platforms a safer place. A few weeks ago, one of the leaked documents revealed that the company maintained a two-tier system in which high-profile “whitelisted” users got to walk away with repeated content violations.

Next: What Is A Metaverse & Why Is Facebook Building One?

Source: Web Summit