Facebook Whistleblowers: What it Means to its Users
October 14, 2021
By Amanda Bang
In light of recent Facebook whistleblower claims from Frances Haugen and her appearance in 60 Minutes, the discussion about social media and its possible negative effects on the general public seems to be more prevalent than ever.
Haugen made multiple claims throughout the past few months and through different news outlets. Recently, she revealed her identity as a whistleblower on 60 Minutes, a CBS television program, and she talked more in depth about the claims she has against Facebook. Some of the alleged comments include Facebook having knowledge about the app being used to spread hate and misinformation on their platforms but does little to prevent it.
She said in the 60 Minutes interview that an internal study showed “we estimate that we may action as little as 3-5% of hate and about 6-tenths of 1% of V & I [violence and incitement] on Facebook despite being the best in the world at it”
She also has previously leaked an internal presentation from Facebook from 2020, which included a slide saying “32% of teen girls said that when they felt bad about their bodies, Instagram made them feel worse.” This shows that Facebook, as a parent company of Instagram, had knowledge of the negative effects of the application but has kept it hidden from the public.
According to Statista’s ranking of most popular social networks worldwide as of July 2021, Facebook has the most users of all ages, and Instagram comes in fourth. This shows how large amounts of populations worldwide can be affected by the possible spreading of hate and misinformation online on the applications owned by Facebook. Furthermore, according to a fact sheet from Pew Research Center, 71 percent of the U.S. population aged 18-28 said they are users of Instagram. These statistics show how Instagram possibly affecting the mental health of teenagers could be a big problem affecting a large number of young adults in the U.S.
A Boston University undergraduate junior Yujin Min said although there are some positive aspects of social media like “communicating with other people” and connecting with friends, there are negative aspects especially relating to body image that she’s personally seen affect people in her life.
“My older sister does Instagram a lot, and follows a lot of celebrities,” Min said. “And recently she went on a diet… I think the biggest reason was that she wanted to be like one of those thin celebrities that we see on the media.”
Min also mentioned that her sister went on an “unhealthy diet” where she aimed to lose weight in a short period of time and credited social media to have a “huge impact” on her choice. This seems to be one of many stories of social media affecting the mental health and body image, as so many stories can be found online and even as news stories where parents have spoken up about their children getting affected.
These claims made by the whistleblower Haugen are reminiscent of older whistleblower cases involving Facebook and Cambridge Analytica a few years back, where users’ data was taken from Facebook, analyzed, and used on Facebook as a platform to lead users to certain information and possibly spread misinformation regarding the 2016 election. Much of this came from information that Facebook had of its users and how it was used by a third party. Looking at the two instances makes us question- how much information is Facebook and other social media platforms holding from the public that we as users deserve to know?