(NewsNation) — A Facebook whistleblower says her former employer had “no basic level of protection” for users’ public safety as the company faces two lawsuits.
“Even that basic level of care never happened,” Frances Haugen, the founder of “Beyond The Screen,” told “Elizabeth Vargas Reports.”
Five years ago, Haugen testified on Capitol Hill to express her concerns about the choices Meta was making, which she says prioritized its own profits over public safety and put people’s lives at risk.
Haugen’s worries haven’t gone unnoticed, as New Mexico and California in recent years have accused tech giants, including Meta, of not doing enough to prevent kids from the possible damage social media apps can have on their mental health.
Meta has denied any legal violations and said the lawsuits are attempting to blame social media for teens’ mental health struggles. However, Haugen revealed during her time at the company, there were certain kinds of cultural presumptions already in place for employees, and they lacked understanding of the significance of possible addiction from certain users.
“They had to do a whole cultural rebrand of not calling the people who use these products ‘users,'” she added.
“And they had to start calling them ‘people,’ right, like monthly active people instead of monthly active users, because even at some point they realized they had gone far enough down that road where you had to remind your employees to treat people who consume your product as people...
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