Frances Haugen, in Iowa Ideas keynote address, says Big Tech is failing in its obligations to society
Iowans and billions of others around the world today live in an information environment more and more mediated by algorithms.
And every day social media companies make subtle choices about how their products operate and what a person sees on their screens, which have profound and lasting impacts on the physical and mental health of users.
Iowa City native Frances Haugen said social media users, in the U.S. and globally, should have the right to peak behind the curtain and “crash test” the algorithms.
“The consequences of that are when our economy is run more by opaque systems, instead of by transparent ones, it means that inside those companies there’s a constant temptation to begin to have the story the company tells deviate from what is the truth of that company — what it’s actually experiencing and what it’s actual impact is on the world,” Haugen said.
The former Facebook employee-turned-whistleblower delivered a keynote address Thursday as part of The Gazette’s Iowa Ideas Conference 2023.
Since revealing herself as the source behind tens of thousands of pages of leaked documents showing Facebook executives were indifferent to the harms caused by the amplification and spread of hateful and false information via its platform, Haugen has advocated for laws in the U.S. and abroad that aim to make social media safer for kids.
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