Facebook Whistleblower Testifies at EU Parliament

Frances Haugen speaks at the opening night of Web Summit 2021, hosted at the Altice Arena in Lisbon, Portugal. (Wikimedia Commons)

Facebook whistleblower Frances Haugen testified at the European Union Parliament on November 8. The majority of her presentation focused on the Digital Services Act (DSA), the EU’s upcoming legislation regulating online content.

Haugen said during the testimony that "the Digital Services Act that is now before this Parliament has the potential to be a global gold standard… It can inspire other countries, including [the United States], to pursue new rules that would safeguard our democracies."

According to the European Commission, the DSA’s goals are “to create a safer digital space in which the fundamental rights of all users of digital services are protected” and to “establish a level playing field to foster innovation, growth, and competitiveness, both in the European Single Market and globally.” Haugen warned representatives against the temptation to create loopholes in the DSA. She defended that the news media should not be exempt from the regulations of the DSA, as the provisions of the bill must be neutral in order to combat all types of potentially harmful content, according to Politico. As a former Facebook employee, Haugen focused on Facebook’s outsized influence and lack of regulation on the international stage. During the hearing, Haugen said that “the choices being made by Facebook’s leadership are a huge problem—for children, for public safety, for democracy—that is why I came forward,” she said. “And let’s be clear: it doesn’t have to be this way.”

The parameters of the DSA include more direct government oversight of big technology and social media corporations, as well as ensuring transparency from these organizations with their users. Ultimately, the EU looks to create a safer, more egalitarian, and less monopolistic digital space across all of its member states. This would include more direct regulation of both European and non-European technology, communications, and social media companies.

Haugen leaked the “Facebook Papers,” a series of internal Facebook documents in September regarding the platform’s impact on youth, algorithm changes that sent users more polarizing content, and widespread misinformation, especially since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic according to the Wall Street Journal. She revealed her identity as the whistleblower of the papers on 60 Minutes on October 3.

In November, Haugen also visited the United Kingdom, Germany, and France to advocate for legislation that would reorient how Facebook measures its success and user engagement to no longer disseminate as much misinformation or polarizing content to its users. 

The DSA lies in the hands of the European Parliament, the European Commission, and the Council of the European Union, whose representatives will meet early next year in a series of EU legislative meetings to reach a final agreement on the regulatory proposals.