Frances Haugen

Former Facebook product manager Frances Haugen has been revealed as the source behind tens of thousands of pages of leaked internal company research, which she says show the company has been negligent in eliminating violence, disinformation, and other harmful content from its services, and that it has mislead investors about these efforts. Widely referred to as a “Facebook whistleblower” responsible for leaking documents behind a Wall Street Journal series, Haugen spoke publicly about her complaint to federal authorities, disclosing her identity for the first time in an interview airing on “60 Minutes.” A veteran of tech companies including Pinterest, Yelp and Google, Haugen left Facebook in May 2021 after realizing that it puts profits over the public good. Facebook has sought to deny and deflect the revelations, downplaying the documents — even tearing into its own internal research — in blog posts, interviews and Congressional testimony. Facebook head of global affairs Nick Clegg appeared on CNN Sunday morning, proactively calling allegations that the company is to blame for the violence on Jan. 6 “ludicrous.”