Facebook whistleblower testifies in Congress

Monika Bickert, vice president of content policy at Facebook, responded to a whistleblower's accusations this afternoon, saying the platform does not push incendiary content in order to drive engagement.

"It is not true," said Bickert, when asked by CNN's Alisyn Camerota if the platform's algorithms are designed to push inflammatory content in order to draw more clicks and engagement.

"We do the opposite, in fact, and if you look in our transparency center, you can actually see that we demote, meaning we reduce the visibility of engagement bait, click bait, and why would we do that? One big reason is for the long-term health of our services, we want people to have a good experience," she said.

Bickert was responding to whistleblower Frances Haugen's testimony on Capitol Hill earlier in the day who said the company puts "their astronomical profits before people" and its products “harm children, stoke division and weaken our democracy." She called for congressional action against the social media giant.

"When we realized tobacco companies were hiding the harms it caused, the government took action," she said in her opening remarks. "When we figured out cars were safer with seat belts, the government took action. And today, the government is taking action against companies that hid evidence on opioids. I implore you to do the same here."

In one portion of the hearing, Sen. Amy Klobuchar, a Democrat from Minnesota, asked the former Facebook employee if the company is using its algorithm to push "outrageous content" promoting eating disorders to young girls. She said that Facebook "knows it is leading young users" to content related to eating disorders. The whistleblower also noted that Facebook's artificial intelligence (AI) systems "only catch a very tiny minority of offending content."

Speaking on CNN this afternoon, Bickert did acknowledge the company could "do better" for some of its users.

"Now, we need to do better for those who are having a bad experience," she said.

More background: Haugen's identity as the Facebook whistleblower was revealed on "60 Minutes" Sunday night. She previously shared a series of documents with regulators and the Wall Street Journal, which published a multi-part investigation showing that Facebook was aware of problems with its apps, including the negative effects of misinformation and the harm caused by Instagram, especially to young girls, and that the company has tried to hide that evidence.

CNN's Samantha Murphy Kelly and Clare Duffy contributed reporting to this post. 

Facebook whistleblower Frances Haugen was "compelling" and "credible" in her remarks before senators today, said Democratic Sen. Richard Blumenthal, chair of the Subcommittee on Consumer Protection, Product Safety and Data Security.

Blumenthal said Haugen had concrete recommendations on how to improve Facebook to make it more transparent and protect children. Haugen gave hope to parents concerned about the effects of social media on their children, the senator said.

The lawmaker said he is convinced that other whistleblowers will come forward after Haugen's testimony.

Senators on both sides of the aisle praised former Facebook employee Frances Haugen for her powerful testimony on Capitol Hill today.

In front of a packed press gallery in the Russell Office Building, one lawmaker pointed how meetings of a subcommittee don’t always attract this much attention.

Haugen did not let the senators down – breaking down how platforms like Facebook and Instagram work and cause harm in a way that was accessible and mostly jargon-free.

Hearings on Big Tech can regularly devolve into partisan point-scoring, but Haugen deftly handling lawmakers’ questions – maintaining regulation does not have to mean censorship.

“What's cool about Haugen's testimony and this hearing is a real focus on amplification and algorithm design and not just censorship and bad info,” Charlie Warzel, a leading technology commentator, tweeted. “It feels like the advancement of the Facebook conversation/critique that a lot of close followers have been hoping for.”

When Haugen’s three hours or so of testimony concluded, she picked up her black backpack and walked calmly for the exit – it is, however, unlikely to be her last time in a hearing room like this.

Democratic Sen. Richard Blumenthal, who chairs the Senate Commerce subcommittee on consumer protection, suggested the panel may ask her back to share further insights about Instagram’s harms on children and Democratic Rep. Adam Schiff indicated yesterday she may be invited to appear before the House committee investigating the Jan. 6 insurrection to testify on Facebook’s role in it.

Watch here:

Facebook earlier this year gave users on Facebook and Instagram the option to hide public like counts on their posts in an effort to reduce the pressure users feel to gain popularity. But Haugen said this isn’t sufficient to address teen mental health concerns on the platforms. 

“Teenage girls are smart, they see that Sally is prettier than them, her pictures are really good, she gets tons of comments, she doesn’t get very many comments,” she said. “So I do think we need larger interventions than just removing quantitative measures.”

Facebook whistleblower Frances Haugen told Senate lawmakers that she is "against the breaking up of Facebook."

For the past few years, there have been mounting calls from regulators in the United States and Europe to break up tech giants like Facebook. Lawmakers, publishers and other groups have criticized Facebook, in particular, for its handling of misinformation, its history of buying or copying rivals, and its data privacy practices, among other issues.

But according to Haugen, breaking up Facebook won't eliminate the potential risks the company poses to society.

The problem lies in the design of algorithms and engagement-based ranking that surface potentially concerning content for users, and the limitations of artificial intelligence to address it, Haugen explained.

Haugen emphasized collaborative solutions with Congress, or else "these systems are going to continue to exist and be dangerous even if broken up."

Sen. Marsha Blackburn, a Republican from Tennessee, brought up a tweet that was posted by Andy Stone, Facebook communications executive, during the hearing.

In the tweet, he said, "Just pointing out the fact that [Frances Haugen] did not work on child safety or Instagram or research these issues and has no direct knowledge of the topic from her work at Facebook."

Blackburn responded: "So I will simply say this to Mr. Stone, if Facebook wants to discuss their targeting of children, if they want to discuss their practices, privacy violations, or violations of the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act, I am extending to you an invitation to step forward, be sworn in, and testify before this committee."

More background: Haugen has been transparent about the fact that she did not work on child safety issues at Facebook; she noted in one answer that although she has some knowledge of the issue, she did not work directly on it.

However, Haugen provided extensive internal documentation related to Facebook's research on the topic to lawmakers.

Frances Haugen said Facebook's research reveals kids believe they are struggling with issues like body image and bullying alone because their parents can't guide them.

"I'm saddest when I look on Twitter and people blame the parents for these problems with Facebook. They say, 'Just take your kid's phone away.' But the reality is that it's a lot more complicated than that."

She emphasized how parents are facing a new set of challenges that didn't exist when they were growing up.

“Very rarely do you have one of these generational shifts where the generation that leads, like parents who guide their children, have such a different set of experiences that they don't have the context to support their children in a safe way,” she testified. “We need to support parents. If Facebook won't protect the kids, we at least need to help the parents support the kids.”

She added that schools and the National Institutes of Health should provide established information where parents can learn how to better support their kids.

Sen. Richard Blumenthal agreed. “Parents are anguished about this issue. They are hardly uncaring. They need the tools. They need to be empowered.”

Haugen, whose last role at Facebook was as a product manager supporting the company’s counter-espionage team, was asked whether Facebook is used by “authoritarian or terrorist-based leaders” around the world. 

She said such use of the platforms is “definitely” happening, and that Facebook is “very aware” of it.  

“My team directly worked on tracking Chinese participation on the platform, surveilling, say, Uyghur populations, in places around the world. You could actually find the Chinese based on them doing these kinds of things,” Haugen said. “We also saw active participation of, say, the Iran government doing espionage on other state actors.” 

Sen. Richard Blumenthal suggested that these national security concerns could be the subject of a future subcommittee hearing.

Facebook whistleblower Frances Haugen detailed how the social media platform could become a better environment, saying it could introduce transparency measures and small frictions, and move away from the "dangerous" engagement-based ranking system.

This would recenter the methods of amplification and won't focus not on "picking winners or losers in the marketplace of ideas," she told senators on Tuesday.

"On Twitter, you have to click through on a link before you reshare it. Small actions like that friction don’t require picking good ideas and bad ideas, they just make the platform less twitchy, less reactive. Facebook’s internal research says each one of these small actions, dramatically reduces misinformation, hate speech and violence-inciting content on the platforms," Haugen said.

She advocated for chronologically-ordered content instead.

"I'm a strong proponent of chronological ranking, ordering by time, with a little bit of spammed emotion. Because I think we don't want computers deciding what we focus on, we should have software that is human-scaled, or humans have conversations together, not computers facilitating who we get to hear from," Haugen said.

In addition, she encouraged a privacy-conscious regulatory body working with academics, researchers and government agencies to "synthesize requests for data" because currently, the social media giant is not obligated to disclose any data.

"Even data as simple as what integrity systems exist today and how well do they perform?" she suggested. "Basic actions like transparency would make a huge difference."

What does engagement-based ranking system mean?

Facebook, like other platforms, uses algorithms to amplify or boost content that receives engagement in the form of likes or shares or comments. In Facebook’s view, this helps a user “enjoy” their feed, Haugen explained.

“The dangers of engagement-based ranking are that Facebook knows that content that elicits an extreme reaction from you is more likely to get a click, a comment or reshare," which aren't necessary for the user's benefit, she added. "It's because they know that other people will produce more content if they get the likes and comments and reshares. They prioritize content in your feed so that you will give little hits of dopamine to your friends so they'll create more content.”