Frances Haugen’s ‘testimony tour’ of revelations about the tech company makes good copy, but will its executives listen?
If you wanted a paragon of astute, thoroughly modern whistleblowing, then Frances Haugen is your woman. She is the former Facebook employee who revealed that the company knew about the harm that some of its products, especially Instagram, were causing but did little or nothing about them because it prioritised growth and revenue above all else.
A good CV is essential to establish your street cred and Haugen ticks all the Silicon Valley boxes. A degree in electrical engineering? Check. An MBA from Harvard? Check. Specialised in algorithmic management? Check. Experience with, and knowledge of, ranking algorithms at a number of tech companies? Check (Google, Pinterest, Yelp). And of course you’ll have held down a substantial position in the company about which you are blowing the whistle. Again, Haugen ticks that box: at Facebook, she was the lead product manager on the civic misinformation team, which dealt with issues of democracy and misinformation; she later worked on counterespionage.
