A second Facebook whistleblower has stepped forward with new claims, according to the Washington Post. The individual was a former member of Facebook’s integrity team. The claims indicate that Facebook takes a profit-before-effort approach to combating hate speech and misinformation on its platform.
A new whistleblower claims that Facebook allows hate speech for more profit
According to The Verge, the whistleblower charges, among other things, that a former Facebook communications official dismissed warnings about Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election.
According to Tucker Bounds, the statement reads that the situation would be “a flash in the pan. Some legislators will get pissy. And then in a few weeks, they will move on to something else. Meanwhile, we are printing money in the basement and we are fine.”
The whistleblower charged that Facebook’s public statements diverged from company decisions in other areas.
According to the Washington Post, a Facebook representative submitted a statement from the company without a name attached:
“At the heart of this story is a premise that is false. Yes, we’re a business and we make profit, but the idea that we do so at the expense of people’s safety or wellbeing misunderstands where our own commercial interests lie.”
The accusations of this whistleblower, who submitted sworn statements to the Securities and Exchange Commission, mirror those made by Frances Haugen.
Haugen revealed internal documents to The Wall Street Journal and accused the company of encouraging hate speech for profit.
