The new scoops were expected to come Monday from a number of news outlets that were given leaked material by Facebook whistleblower Frances Haugen but an embargo on the information collapsed Friday and more devastating reporting on the company’s internal workings could be released any time.
The story that broke the embargo on Friday involved a new whistleblower who told the Securities and Exchange Commission that Facebook routinely dismissed concerns about hate speech and the spread of misinformation over fears it would hinder the company’s growth.
The whistleblower, who testified under oath and whose name has not been released, told the SEC in 2017 that Facebook execs discouraged attempts to fight misinformation and hate speech during the Trump administration because it would hold back the company’s growth — and because they were afraid of the consequences from the president and his allies.
The whistleblower, like Haugen, a member of the social network’s “integrity team,” said Tucker Bounds, a Facebook communications official, dismissed hate speech as a “flash in the pan” and said even though “some legislators will get pissy,” the company is “printing money in the basement.”.
A person who worked at Facebook at the time told The Post that the comments from Bounds sound accurate.
“The truth is we’ve invested $13 billion and have over 40,000 people to do one job: keep people safe on Facebook,” he said, according to the Axios report.
“The thing I saw at Facebook over and over again was there were conflicts of interest between what was good for the public and what was good for Facebook,” Haugen said on the news program.
Other material linked by Haugen to media outlets showed that Facebook downplayed or ignored Instagram’s caustic effects on teenagers’ mental health despite being aware of the damage through internal research.
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