Critics of Facebook have a problem with Frances Haugen: Many love that the whistleblower leaked a trove of documents exposing many of the tech giant's worst problems, but they hate his ideas on how to solve them.
Haugen has repeatedly insisted that he break Meta Platforms, the company that owns Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp, and that changed his facebook name last month amid a torrent of bad press, it won't solve the problems it has helped uncover. Those include The toxic effects of Instagram on the mental health of adolescents and the the company's fight to end human trafficking.
Instead, Haugen has insisted in interviews and testimony before Congress that the company's problems are primarily the result of poor leadership under CEO Mark Zuckerberg, who has implemented algorithms that run his social media apps to incentivize engagement. at any cost.
"These systems will continue to exist and will be dangerous even if broken," Haugen told Congress in October.
Such comments have left bad taste on the lips of many meta-critics, who initially praised Haugen's leaks as a breakthrough as they seek to hold Facebook accountable for its growing power.
"She delivered the documents - great," Mike Davis, head of the conservative anti-Big Tech Internet Accountability Project, told The Post. "Thank you for your service. Now go."
"She is not an expert on policy, especially not on antitrust," said Davis, who previously worked for Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA) and supports a House antitrust bill list, including one that could divide Meta, Google and other big tech firms.
Rather than cutting the company to pieces, Haugen told lawmakers that the government should leave Meta in its entirety and create a new regulator that could request data from the company and force changes to its algorithms.
"There needs to be a regulatory home where someone like me can do their duty after working in a place like this," Haugen said.
Haugen folded the idea into a Vogue interview on Tuesday, saying calls to dissolve the company are "so reductionist" and could even violate the First Amendment.
"At that point, the way we're going to get the change is if, like, we have 18-year-olds having dance parties outside Mark Zuckerberg's house," Haugen added in the interview, which was accompanied by a photoshoot. .
But Haugen's belief that Meta's damage does not inherently stem from his size but from his leadership and lack of oversight is flawed, according to Matt Stoller, an antitrust expert and former adviser to Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT). .
"The documents were helpful, but she is not relevant," Stoller told The Post, adding that Haugen "doesn't really understand the core issue."
"He basically agrees with Mark Zuckerberg," he added. "He wants Mark Zuckerberg to be nicer."
A prominent Republican lobbyist also criticized Haugen, arguing that opening Facebook up to more competition would help address problems, including the negative effects of Instagram on teens.
"Haugen and his largely Democratic supporters are looking for the wrong solution," the lobbyist told The Post.
"We don't need a super regulator of speech," added the lobbyist. "We need to solve the problem of market power."
Meanwhile, the influential digital rights group Electronic Frontier Foundation has tried to thread the needle by using Haugen's testimony to bolster its case for dissolving the company without acknowledging that it opposes the idea.
"Facebook's broken system is driven by a growth-at-any-cost model, as indicated by some of the testimonies Haugen delivered to Congress," the group said. wrote in November. "In other words, the evil of Facebook is inextricably linked to its size."
"Requiring Facebook to ditch Instagram, WhatsApp and possibly other acquisitions and limiting future mergers and acquisitions by companies would go a long way towards solving some of the company's problems and would inject competition into a field in which it has been repressed. for many years". now, ”added the Electronic Frontier Foundation.
Meta and Bill Burton, a former Obama administration communications staff member representing Haugen, did not respond to requests for comment.
