#WebSummit2021: Facebook Whistleblower Denounces Meta Rebrand and Calls for Zuckerberg to Step Down

Facebook prioritizes profits over user safety, according to whistleblower and former Facebook employee, Frances Haugen. She took to the stage at the opening ceremony of Web Summit – her first public address since leaking a collection of damaging Facebook documents – to denounce the social media company’s decisions and ethics.

The interview, led by Laurie Segall, founder and CEO of Dot Dot Media, delved into the motivation behind Haugen’s decision to leave Facebook and expose the social media company’s practices and priorities by leaking internal documents.

“I’m glad I had the opportunity to bring this to life as there has been a pattern of behavior where Facebook has consistently prioritized their profits over our safety,” said Haugen. “Facebook’s content algorithm amplifies the most extreme, polarizing and divisive content.”

Haugen compares this to the three social media companies she worked for prior to Facebook. “It became evident to me that things were substantially worse [at Facebook] than anything else I’d seen.” She suggests that this perhaps gave her the foundation of comparison and the confidence to speak out when other employees did not.

Facebook, Haugen said, tries to reduce the user’s choice down to a false choice: “They try to frame it as ‘do you want censorship?’ or ‘do you want free speech?’…Transparency or privacy. It’s a false choice.” However, she countered, “non content-based solutions exist and are effective to make Facebook safer. Bad people and bad ideas is not the problem, it’s the question of who gets t ..

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