Officials, legislators, and commentators weigh in on the latest Facebook controversy.

 Salem Ghebremedhin

In light of the recent allegations made by Facebook whistleblower Frances Haugen, a former Facebook data scientist, National Public Radio of the United States (NPR org) emphasized critical points from her testimony. 

NPR portrays Haugen as a reputable source and a "powerful critic" for a variety of reasons. 

According to NPR, before leaving the social network, Haugen downloaded hundreds of pages of confidential documents and shared them with politicians, regulators, and The Wall Street Journal. These records prove that the company was aware of the harmful products it was selling to minors.

For instance, Haugen leaked one Facebook study that found that 13.5% of U.K. teen girls say their suicidal thoughts became more frequent after starting on Instagram. Another leaked study found 17% of teen girls say their eating disorders got worse after using Instagram.   

According to NPR, Haugen is not the first ex-Facebook employee to raise concerns, but she stands out because her testimony was personal and in-depth, and she came equipped with receipts to back up her story.

Other commentators have suggested that after the hearing Democrats and Republicans are unified in their desire to regulate Facebook.

 According to Washington Post, at one moment in the hearing, Republican Sen. Jerry Moran of Kansas Turned to democratic Sen. Blumenthal and said they should put aside their partisan differences to tackle a common goal that is reining in Facebook.

To which Blumenthal said when it comes to such regulations "Our differences are very minor." 

"I share that View," Moral replied. 

Later during a press conference, Blumenthal in refenced to the unity at the hearing said, "If you closed your eyes, you wouldn't know if it was a republican or a democrat." "Every part of the country has the harms that are inflicted by Facebook and Instagram."

Aside from that, Hagans has called private citizens to sue Facebook and other social media companies for the harm they caused by their algorithms. However, lawmaker and legislative responses indicate that this might be impossible. This is due to a decade-old law known as section 230 immunizing social media companies from being sued over wheat their users post but promised to examine possible carve-outs.   

As of right now, however, federal regulators and state prosecutors have not indicated how authorities plan to respond. 

In my opinion, it is encouraging to see the majority of the parties involved realize the problem with Facebook's algorithm and how it is undermining the mental health of young adults. 

At the same time, it is discouraging how slowly authorities and legislators are responding to the situation. After all, this isn't the first time Facebook has been involved in such a scandal.

Sources

Allyn, Bobby. Here are 4 key points from the Facebook whistleblower's testimony on Capitol Hill. NPR, technology, October 5, 2021. 

Lima, Cristiano. American views on regulating social media companies aren't as partisan as you may think. Washington Post, Democracy Dies in Darkness, March 9, 2022.