Frances Haugen made headlines as the “Facebook Whistleblower” when she leaked tens of thousands of confidential documents in 2021. Teaming up with reporter Jeff Horwitz, Haugen secretly copied internal research indicating that Facebook, now Meta, repeatedly prioritized profit over user safety. The findings were published in The Wall Street Journal’s investigative series called “The Facebook Files.”
After revealing her true identity, the former Facebook employee testified before Congress, helping to change the conversation around Big Tech regulation and accountability. The now-famous leak is explored in the new movie The Social Reckoning, which follows Haugen and Horwitz in their pursuit of the truth.
Here’s what to know about Frances Haugen and the Facebook whistleblower scandal.
In 2019, data scientist Frances Haugen accepted a job as a product manager on Facebook’s Civic Integrity team in California. Educated at Olin College and Harvard University, the Iowa native was tasked with mitigating election interference around the world by suppressing dangerous misinformation on the platform. Just one year later, however, Facebook—the parent company—led by CEO Mark Zuckerberg, disbanded the unit shortly after the 2020 U.S. presidential election.
Disillusioned by the decision, Haugen eventually resigned in May 2021—but not before copying 22,000 internal documents indicating that the media conglomerate knew that Facebook, the social media site,...
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