Frances Haugen facts for kids

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Quick facts for kids Frances Haugen

Born	1983/1984 (age 40–41) Iowa City, Iowa, U.S.
Education	Olin College (BS) Harvard University (MBA)
Occupation	Data scientist and engineer, product manager

Frances Haugen (born in 1983 or 1984) is an American product manager, data engineer, scientist, and whistleblower. A whistleblower is someone who tells the public about hidden problems or wrongdoings inside a company or organization. In 2021, she shared thousands of secret documents from Facebook with the government and a newspaper called The Wall Street Journal.

Haugen has also spoken to important groups like the United States Senate Commerce Committee, the Parliament of the United Kingdom, and the European Parliament. These groups are like big councils that make rules for countries. In 2023, she wrote a book about her experiences called The Power of One: How I Found the Strength to Tell the Truth and Why I Blew the Whistle on Facebook.

Early Life and School
Her Career Journey
- Working at Facebook
Speaking Out: The Facebook Files
- Talking to Lawmakers
Helping Make Social Media Safer
- New Rules for the Internet
Her Book: The Power of One
Personal Life
See also

Early Life and School

Frances Haugen grew up in Iowa City, Iowa. She went to Horn Elementary and Northwest Junior High School. She finished high school at Iowa City West High School in 2002. Her father was a doctor, and her mother became an Episcopalian priest after working as a professor.

Haugen studied electrical and computer engineering at the Franklin W. Olin College of Engineering. She was part of the first group of students to graduate from there in 2006. Later, she earned a Master of Business Administration (MBA) from Harvard Business School in 2011. An MBA is a special degree for people who want to work in business leadership.

Her Career Journey

After college in 2006, Haugen started working at Google. She helped with projects like Google Ads and Google Book Search. She also worked on Google+, which was a social network. While at Google, she even helped create a patent for how search results are ranked. Google paid for her to get her MBA degree. She also helped start a computer dating app called Secret Agent Cupid, which later led to the mobile app Hinge.

In 2015, she became a data product manager at Yelp. Her job was to make search better using image recognition, which helps computers understand pictures. After a year, she moved to work at Pinterest.

Working at Facebook

In 2019, Haugen joined Facebook. She decided to join because someone close to her started believing extreme ideas they found online. She wanted to help make Facebook a safer and less harmful place. When Facebook hired her, she said she wanted to work on problems like misinformation, which is false or inaccurate information. In 2019, she became a product manager on Facebook's "civic integrity" team. This team worked to keep elections and public discussions fair and honest on the platform.

After the 2020 United States elections, Facebook closed its civic integrity team. This made Haugen feel very disappointed. While still working at Facebook, she decided to become a whistleblower. She felt that Facebook often chose to make money instead of keeping people safe. She left Facebook in May 2021.

In the spring of 2021, she got help from John Tye, a lawyer who helps whistleblowers for free. Tye agreed to help her and keep her identity a secret. In the late summer of 2021, Haugen started meeting with members of the United States Congress, like Senator Richard Blumenthal.

Speaking Out: The Facebook Files

In September 2021, The Wall Street Journal newspaper started publishing a series of articles called The Facebook Files: A Wall Street Journal Investigation. These articles were based on secret Facebook documents that Haugen had shared. The documents included research reports and employee discussions.

After these articles came out, the United States Senate Commerce Committee held two hearings. A hearing is a meeting where people give information and answer questions. First, Facebook's head of safety, Antigone Davis, spoke. Then, on October 5, 2021, Frances Haugen, who was still anonymous, was questioned.

On October 3, 2021, Haugen revealed herself as the Facebook whistleblower on a TV show called 60 Minutes. She talked about Facebook's "Civic Integrity" program. This program was meant to stop misinformation and other threats to election security. She said the program was shut down after the 2020 elections. Haugen believed this contributed to the 2021 United States Capitol attack. She said, "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. And Facebook, over and over again, chose to optimize for its own interests, like making more money."

Haugen had shared documents with members of the U.S. Congress and government lawyers. After Haugen's interview, Facebook's value dropped a lot. Based on the leaked documents, some people thought Facebook might not be as strong as it seemed. After Haugen became public, a group called Luminate Group started helping her with talking to the press and governments in Europe.

Talking to Lawmakers

Haugen also filed complaints with the SEC, a government group that watches over companies. She said Facebook had misled its investors (people who put money into the company). She claimed Facebook lied about how much progress they made in stopping hate, violence, and misinformation on their platform. The documents she gave to the SEC also showed how Facebook handled misinformation during the 2020 U.S. election.

Haugen's complaints included internal Facebook documents about how the company handled misinformation and hate speech in India. She said that many users and pages linked to a group called the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) spread fear and anti-Muslim messages to cause violence. She claimed Facebook knew about these harmful messages in India. She also said that Facebook didn't have enough tools to find and fix problematic posts in languages like Hindi and Bengali.

Haugen's complaints mentioned public statements by Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg. She said that Zuckerberg, as CEO, was ultimately responsible. She claimed that some of his public statements, like his testimony to Congress in 2020, did not match Facebook's own internal documents. In 2022, more complaints were filed on Haugen's behalf. These complaints said Facebook misled investors about its efforts to fight climate change misinformation and COVID misinformation.

On October 5, 2021, Haugen spoke to the United States Senate Commerce Committee. She said, "The company's leadership knows how to make Facebook and Instagram safer, but won't make the necessary changes because they have put their astronomical profits before people. Congressional action is needed." She also talked about how Facebook's systems could make ethnic violence worse in places like Myanmar and Ethiopia. Haugen also said she was talking to another committee about issues like spying and false information. She believed Facebook's systems would "continue to be dangerous even if they're broken up." After the hearing, Senator Richard Blumenthal said Haugen "wants to fix Facebook, not burn it to the ground."

After Haugen's testimony, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg said that "Many of the claims don't make any sense." He also said, "We're committed to doing the best work we can, but at some level the right body to assess trade-offs between social equities is our democratically elected Congress." Senator Blumenthal said he wanted Zuckerberg to speak to Congress about the documents Haugen shared.

Helping Make Social Media Safer

Documents shared by Haugen were given to government lawyers in several U.S. states. In October 2021, many state attorneys general (top lawyers for states) asked Facebook for information. They wanted to know about Facebook's "XCheck system," which protects high-profile users. They also asked about Facebook's actions against COVID-19 vaccine misinformation.

In November 2021, Ohio's Attorney General filed a lawsuit against Meta Platforms (which used to be called Facebook). The lawsuit claimed that company leaders, including Mark Zuckerberg, repeatedly lied about how safe the platform was. This lawsuit was based on documents leaked by Haugen. The lawsuit asked for a lot of money in damages and for the company to make changes.

Later in November 2021, a group of state attorneys general from both political parties announced an investigation into Meta. This investigation focuses on Instagram and how Meta encourages people to spend more time on its apps. They are looking into possible harms to children and teenagers.

New Rules for the Internet

Haugen's lawyer said they were talking with the Federal Trade Commission (another U.S. government group) and parliaments in Europe. The U.S. Senate and House committees also planned to meet with Haugen.

In October 2021, Facebook's Oversight Board, which is an outside group that reviews Facebook's decisions, said they would talk with Haugen. She also met with U.S. House lawmakers.

On October 25, 2021, Haugen spoke to the Parliament of the United Kingdom. She asked the government to make rules for Facebook and for Facebook to make changes.

On November 8, 2021, she spoke to the European Parliament. She urged them to make new rules for social media platforms to be more open and honest. She said the Digital Services Act (DSA), which is a new set of rules for online services, could be a "global gold standard." She also said that because Europe has many different languages, it could force platforms to make safety changes for all languages, not just major ones.

In May 2022, after the European Parliament agreed on the Digital Services Act, Haugen spoke to them again. She praised their work and asked them to make sure the new rules are actually put into action.

In June 2022, it was reported that Haugen planned to start a non-profit group called "Beyond the Screen." This group would work to raise awareness about the harms of social media. It would also try to encourage legal and financial ways to reduce these harms.

In October 2022, Haugen joined the Council for Responsible Social Media project. This project aims to deal with the negative effects of social media on mental health, public life, and public health in the United States.

Her Book: The Power of One

In December 2021, a book publisher announced a deal with Haugen for her memoir. A memoir is a book about a person's own life and experiences. In 2023, Haugen's book The Power of One: How I Found the Strength to Tell the Truth and Why I Blew the Whistle on Facebook was published. A review in The Washington Post said the book was important for understanding how social media's dangers grew.

Personal Life

In 2011, Haugen found out she had celiac disease, which is a problem with digesting certain foods. In 2014, she had to go to the hospital. In 2021, Haugen told The Guardian that she was motivated to work on misinformation at Facebook because of a friend she lost. This friend started believing in conspiracy theories after visiting online forums. After leaving Facebook, Haugen moved to Puerto Rico. She has also invested in a cryptocurrency company.

Haugen has family from Norway. In 2022, she received an America-Norway Heritage Award for her work as a whistleblower.