This Tuesday students, staff and faculty gathered around the lobby of Wallis Annenberg Hall and peered over the railings in a massive crowd. They were all intent to hear Frances Haugen, better known as the Facebook Whistleblower, and what she had to say.
Frances Haugen joined USC Annenberg for a conversation on making tech work better. She was joined by Jim Steyer, the CEO of Common Sense, an age based media review company. The conversation covered the need for accountability and transparency in the digital age and the spread of misinformation.
Frances Haugen joined Facebook in 2019 in hopes of fighting against misinformation by joining the company’s civic integrity department. She left two years later and found representation to become a whistleblower. Last September, The Wall Street Journal published Facebook Files. This was an investigate series of reports on Facebook including exemptions for high profile users, impacts on youth, the algorithm, and the spread of misinformation.
Haugen also testified before the U.S. congress, claiming that quote the company’s leadership knows how to make Facebook and Instagram safer but won’t make the necessary changes because they put astronomical profits before people.
During her conversation, Haugen and Steyer, a American children’s advocate and lawyer, discussed the shortcomings of Facebook.
Haugen discussed the difficulty of deciding to be a whistleblower, citing her final moment being when Facebook decided to disband the civic...
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