Whistleblower Frances Haugen to Meet With Facebook Oversight Board

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Facebook whistleblower Frances Haugen will be meeting with the social media giant’s oversight board.

The board put out a statement Monday saying she will speak with them about information that can help push for greater transparency and accountability from Facebook.”

The choices made by companies like Facebook have real-world consequences for the freedom of expression and human rights of billions of people across the world. In this context, transparency around rules is essential.

As the Board shared in September, we are currently looking into whether Facebook has been fully forthcoming in its responses on its ‘cross-check’ system and will share our analysis in our first release of quarterly transparency reports later this month. Facebook has also said it will ask the Board to review how cross-check can be improved and to offer recommendations.

As a Board, we will continue to ask Facebook difficult questions and push the company to commit to greater transparency, accountability and fairness. Ultimately, only this can give users the confidence that they are being treated fairly.

Haugen tweeted about the upcoming meeting and said Facebook “has lied to the board repeatedly.”

I have accepted the invitation to brief the Facebook Oversight Board about what I learned while working there. Facebook has lied to the board repeatedly, and I am looking forward to sharing the truth with them.

— Frances Haugen (@FrancesHaugen) October 11, 2021

Haugen has gone public in the past week accusing Facebook of prioritizing profit over safety. Internal research she leaked showed, among other things, that Facebook knew how toxic Instagram was for teen girls.

Mark Zuckerberg directly responded last week and claimed, “The argument that we deliberately push content that makes people angry for profit is deeply illogical.”