Over the past few weeks, Facebook has been on the hot seat due to a study revealing the severe detrimental effects the social media app has on teen’s mental health. Interestingly enough, Facebook itself conducted the study but decided to controversially hide its results. Frances Haugen, a former Facebook employee, and the whistleblower who brought thousands of documents to the attention of federal prosecutors and the public to expose the corruption of the social media colossus.

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Frances Haugen worked at Facebook for a little under a year as a product manager. During this time, she witnessed many concerning practices in place, namely that the company’s algorithm and platform knowingly diminished teens’ mental health. A study exploring Facebook’s effect on teens’ psyche demonstrated this fact; its findings include the discovery that 1 in 3 teens girls experience body image issues due to Facebook. Similarly, in 2020, 32% of girls surveyed said that Instagram (another app owned by Facebook) worsened their body images. Most severely, 13% of UK and 6% of US users surveyed linked desires for self-harm back to Instagram. These results led to much controversy in themselves, but Haugen couldn’t stand the fact that Facebook tried to brush them under the carpet. She gathered a series of documents regarding the study and exposed Facebook to popular printing companies like the Wall Street Press, ending the social media app’s secrecy.

 

This is not the first time there has been a major scandal regarding Facebook. Over the past decade, the owner of Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg, has faced numerous leaks and controversies regarding his tricky algorithm, leading many to ponder whether Facebook should be made open to the public. The most infamous of these scandals was an unwilling experiment performed on 70,000 Facebook users without their knowledge of how changes in their News Feed could affect their mental health. This created a domino effect that led to the mass genocide of Myanmar due to their algorithm and fake news. Which then led to the Rakin government blindly hating Myanmar due to fake news and information. This, unfortunately, led to Myanmar being the scapegoat for the Rakin government. Resulting in a 5 billion dollars fine for the company (Facebook), a record-breaking amount in the tech industry. 

 

Frames Haugen was not new to the tech industry. In the past, she had also worked for Google and other programming and social media corporations. She states that Facebook is prioritizing growth over safety and that they realized that changing their algorithm to be safer would mean people would spend less time on their app, watch fewer ads, and overall make less money. She states through a 60 minute interview that "conflicts of interest between what was good for the public and what was good for Facebook" were common and that “time and time again, they choose what was best for the company, like making more money”. “At some point in 2021, she realized, "okay, I'm gonna have to do this in a systematic way, and I have to get out enough that no one can question that this is real". To her, “evidence shows that the company is lying to the public about making significant progress against hate, violence, and misinformation,” demonstrating clear corruption within Facebook. Just like its other scandals, Facebook, again, does what is best for itself, with no apparent concern for the public or care towards the consequences of neglecting their responsibilities. If these big tech companies prioritize their company over their consumers, who will protect our rights as consumers and human beings to privacy and security? 

 

Will Facebook be held responsible for ignoring and hiding their shocking findings, or will they come off scotch-free without a change in the system? This case marks the precipice of standards for all social media companies, for finally, regulations may be placed on social media companies to protect users’ privacy and personal data. We stand at a time of change; the stories we have all grown up with about the dangers of social media towards our mental health and work ethic are starting to have real standing. Yet, what if now, a time comes where we do not have to be afraid? What if, continuing on, we can tell future generations that they are safe with confidence because that is exactly how it is supposed to be?

 

I beg you to think of these questions and ponder truly what if?