Becoming a whistleblower was not Frances Haugen’s plan. She claims she does not like being the centre of attention, however things she saw while working at Facebook pushed her to act. Frances Haugen is a former product manager for the social media empire, which recently rebranded itself under the new name "Meta". In 2021 she disclosed multiple Facebook's internal documents to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and The Wall Street Journal.
Frances joined Facebook in 2019 where she became a product manager in civic integrity department. She noticed Facebook was prioritizing profit over public safety and she decided to leave the company in May 2021. At the same time, she reached out to the nonprofit law firm Whistleblower Aid. With their support to provide her anonymity and safety, Frances started talking to members of the United States Congress and The Wall Street Journal.
She has accused Facebook of promoting hate speech and misinformation, damaging democracy and sowing social division by polarising content.
Haugen disclosed her identity as the whistleblower when she appeared on a prime-time show on American television. Facebook's market capitalization plumeted by $6 billion within 24 hours of the interview.
The complaints filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and topics covered by The Wall Street Journal included how Facebook handles:
- political misinformation,
- hate speech
- teenage mental health
- human trafficking
- promotion of ethnic violence
- preferential treatment for high-profile users
- communications with investors
In November 2021, a lawsuit was filed against Meta Platforms (formerly known as Facebook) on behalf of investors, claiming iterative false representations by executives (including CEO Mark Zuckerberg and CFO David Wehner) based on "The Facebook Papers" - documents revealed by Frances Haugen. Not only does the lawsuit seek over $100 billion in damages but also for the company to implement reforms.