Opening statement by Frances HAUGEN, former Facebook product manager, ahead of the public hearing titled 'Whistle-blower's testimony on the negative impact of big tech companies' products on users'. Frances HAUGEN discuesses with MEPs about online safety, risk mitigation, and transparency of algorithms concerning the Digital Service Act. This transcription is a result of an authomatic process. Please check against delivery.

Brussels

Committee on the Internal Market and Consumer Protection

hearing

digital services act (T)

Public Hearing on Whistle-blower's testimony on the negative impact of big tech companies’ products on user: opening statement by Frances HAUGEN

SOUNDBITE (English), Frances Haugen, Facebook Whistleblower, Honorable members of the European Parliament, thank you for the opportunity to appear before you and for your interest in confronting some of the most urgent threats to the citizens of the European Union. My name is Frances Haugen. I used to work at Facebook and joined the company because I believe Facebook has the potential to bring out the best in us. But I am here today because I believe that Facebook's products harm children, stoke division, weaken our democracy and much more.

SOUNDBITE (English), Frances Haugen, Facebook Whistleblower, The company's leadership knows ways to make Facebook and Instagram safer, but they won't make the necessary changes because they have put their immense profits before people. The consequences are severe. The Facebook platform today damages the health and safety of our communities and threatens the integrity of our democracies.

SOUNDBITE (English), Frances Haugen, Facebook Whistleblower, Rising to meet these challenges won't be easy, but democracies must do what they have always done. When the actions of commerce conflict with the interests of the people and society as a whole, democracies must step in and make new laws. I am grateful that the European Union is taking this very seriously. 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 my own, to pursue new rules that would safeguard our democracies. But the law has to be strong and its enforcement firm. Otherwise, we will lose this once in a generation opportunity to align the future of technology and democracy

SOUNDBITE (English), Frances Haugen, Facebook Whistleblower, My analysis and explanation of the documents in my disclosure is grounded in more than the time I spent at Facebook. I have worked as a product manager at large tech companies since twenty six, including Google, Pinterest, Yelp and Facebook. My job has largely focussed on algorithmic products like Google Plus Search and recommendation systems like the one that powers the Facebook news feed. Working at four major tech companies that operate different types of social networks, I have been able to compare and contrast how each company approaches and deals with different challenges.

SOUNDBITE (English), Frances Haugen, Facebook Whistleblower, The choices being made by Facebook's leadership are a huge problem for children, for public safety and for democracy. That's why I came forward. And let's be clear, it doesn't have to be this way. We are here today because of deliberate choices Facebook has made. I joined Facebook in twenty nineteen because someone close to me was radicalised online. I felt compelled to take an active role and role in creating a better, less toxic Facebook. During my time at Facebook, first working as a lead product manager for civic misinformation and later on counter-espionage, I saw that Facebook repeatedly encountered conflicts between its own profits and our safety. Facebook consistently resolved these conflicts in favour of its own profits. The result has been a system that amplifies division, extremism and polarisation. It undermines societies around the world.

SOUNDBITE (English), Frances Haugen, Facebook Whistleblower, In some cases, this dangerous online talk has led to actual violence that harms and even kills people. In other cases, their profit optimised machine is generating self harm and self hate, especially for vulnerable groups like teenage girls. These problems have been confirmed repeatedly by Facebook's own internal research. This is not simply a matter of some social media users being angry or unstable. Facebook became Facebook became a one trillion dollar company by by paying for its profits with our safety, including the safety of our children. And that is unacceptable. I believe what I did was right and necessary for the common good. But I know Facebook has infinite resources which it could use to destroy me. I came forward because I recognised a frightening truth.

SOUNDBITE (English), Frances Haugen, Facebook Whistleblower, The right answer to this emergency is new rules and standards. The use Digital Services Act has a huge potential. It does not try to delete this problem with content regulations. It takes a content neutral approach to address the systemic risks and harms of the overall business model. And I strongly support this approach. There's much more to say about this legislation, but I want to highlight three issues that are critically important based on my experiences.

SOUNDBITE (English), Frances Haugen, Facebook Whistleblower, Almost no one outside of Facebook knows what happens inside of Facebook. The company's leadership keeps vital information from the public, the US government, its shareholders and governments around the world. The documents I have provided proof that Facebook has repeatedly misled us about what its own research reveals about the safety of children, its role in spreading hateful and polarising messages, and so much more.

SOUNDBITE (English), Frances Haugen, Facebook Whistleblower, First, risk assessments and access to privacy. Where data streams. Second, comprehensive rules and standards for the business model. Third, the danger of loopholes and exemptions. I'll address these three in turn.

SOUNDBITE (English), Frances Haugen, Facebook Whistleblower, At the core of the problems we face right now is that no one can understand Facebook's destructive choices better than Facebook because only Facebook gets to look under the hood. Facebook cannot remain the judge, jury, prosecutor, and witness. So a critical starting point for effective regulation is transparency. Full access to data for research not directed by Facebook. We need more experts studying these problems and they must have all the data they need to do it. It is critical to get this right and the devil will be in the details.

SOUNDBITE (English), Frances Haugen, Facebook Whistleblower, For example, if you write a broad exemption for transparency for anything classified as a trade secret, the companies will say everything is a trade secret. Facebook would still operate in the dark, continuing to make choices that go against the common good. So I believe researchers should respect trade secrets once they have received proprietary data. But trade secrets can and should not be an excuse for companies to refuse access to data. Access to data is the starting point. It's what permits researchers and regulators to assess risks and harms of the whole system of profiling, targeting an engagement based ranking.

SOUNDBITE (English), Frances Haugen, Facebook Whistleblower, The evidence in my disclosures to the S.E.C. make clear that engagement based ranking systems are one of the root causes for some of the greatest systemic risks that social media poses to our societies. This is a system level problem. This is why new rules must not be limited to illegal content, but must also include the recommendation of content that violates a platforms, terms and conditions using content neutral tools. The DSA should force platforms to take responsibility for the risks beyond the spread of illegal content, such as manipulation of elections, the explosive spread of disinformation or the harms of teenage mental health.

SOUNDBITE (English), Frances Haugen, Facebook Whistleblower, The heart of this legislation lies in the strength of articles twenty six and twenty seven. This brings me to my third point. I have read with great interest that their efforts to exempt news media content from the rules of the DSA. But if you're going to make content neutral rules, then they must really be neutral. Nothing is singled out and nothing is exempted. Let me be very clear. Every Moderna disinformation campaign will exploit news media channels on digital platforms by gaming the system. If the DSA makes it illegal for platforms to address these issues, we risk undermining the effectiveness of the law. Indeed, we may be worse off than today's situation.

SOUNDBITE (English), Frances Haugen, Facebook Whistleblower, If you get the right fear linguistically and ethnically diverse four hundred and fifty million EU citizens, you can create a game changer for the world. You can force platforms to price and societal risk to their business operations. So the decisions about what products to build and how to build them is not purely based on profit maximisation. You can establish systemic rules and standards that address risks while protecting free speech. And you can show the world how transparency, oversight and enforcement should work.

SOUNDBITE (English), Frances Haugen, Facebook Whistleblower, Let's not forget: we have stood at these crossroads before. When tobacco companies claimed that filtered cigarettes were safer for consumers, it was possible for scientists to independently invalidate that this marketing message because it was just a marketing message and confirmed that, in fact, they still posed a serious threat to human health. They were actually, in fact, more toxic than unfiltered cigarettes. But today, we can't make this kind of independent assessment of Facebook. We have to just trust that what Facebook says is true and they have repeatedly proved they do not deserve our blind faith. Trust is earned. It's not just given.

SOUNDBITE (English), Frances Haugen, Facebook Whistleblower, Facebook's regulators can see some of the problems, but they are kept blind what's causing them and thus can't craft specific solutions. They can't even access the company's own data on product safety, much less conduct an independent audit. How is the public supposed to assess if Facebook resolving conflicts of interest in a way that is aligned with the public good, if it has no visibility and no context into how Facebook really operates this must change.

SOUNDBITE (English), Frances Haugen, Facebook Whistleblower, Dear members of Parliament, there is a lot at stake here. You have a once in a generation opportunity to create new rules for our online world. A safer, more enjoyable social media is possible if there are only two things that everyone takes away from these disclosures should be. First, Facebook chooses profit over safety every day and without bold action from lawmakers, this will continue. The second is that Facebook has exploited its ability to hide the actual behaviour of the platform to allow our safety to come to an unacceptable level. If Facebook is allowed to continue to operate in darkness, we'll only see escalating tragedies as a result.

SOUNDBITE (English), Frances Haugen, Facebook Whistleblower, I came forward at great personal risk because I believe we still have time to act, but we must act now. Thank you.