Thanks to Aaron Sorkin‘s The Social Reckoning, audiences will be reintroduced to Facebook’s whistleblower, Frances Haugen, an accomplished engineer, product manager and scientist. In late 2021, Haugen revealed her identity after coming forward with shocking allegations against the social media platform. Actress Mikey Madison plays the real-life Haugen in the movie.
Get to know Frances and her connection to the 2021 Facebook exposé here.
What Was Frances Haugen’s Job at Facebook?
Haugen worked as a product manager in the Civic Integrity unit at Facebook. She was recruited in 2019 and left the company, which is now known as Meta, in 2021.
Frances Haugen’s Hometown & Education Background
Born in Iowa City, Iowa, Hayden studied electrical and computer engineering at the Franklin W. Olin College of Engineering, then earned a Master of Business Administration degree from Harvard Business School.
Why Did Frances Haugen Blow the Whistle on Facebook?
After the Wall Street Journal published internal documents about Facebook’s rule breakers and the awareness of how Instagram was affecting the mental health of teens, Haugen revealed her identity during an October 2021 60 Minutes interview. In it, she revealed why she left the company.
“I’ve seen a bunch of social networks, and it was substantially worse at Facebook than what I had seen before,” she alleged. “Facebook, over and over again, has shown it chooses profit over safety.”
The scientist made several shocking claims against Mark Zuckerberg‘s platform, including that Facebook allegedly contributed to election misinformation and the January 6th Capitol insurrection, which the company denied. Nick Clegg, the VP for policy and global affairs, told CNN that Facebook represented “the good, the bad and the ugly of humanity” and that it was trying to “mitigate the bad, reduce it and amplify the good,” adding that Haugen’s claim was “ludicrous” to blame the January 6 insurrection on social media.
Haugen continued in her interview, “Its own research is showing that content that is hateful, that is divisive, that is polarizing, it’s easier to inspire people to anger than it is to other emotions. Facebook has realized that if they change the algorithm to be safer, people will spend less time on the site, they’ll click on less ads, they’ll make less money.”
What Is Frances Haugen Doing Now After Leaving Facebook?
Shortly after leaving Facebook in 2021, Haugen became an author by publishing her memoir, The Power of One: How I Found the Strength to Tell the Truth and Why I Blew the Whistle on Facebook.
Haugen also joined McGill’s Centre for Media, Technology and Democracy as a senior-in-residence to support its research, according to a May 2023 press release.
