Former Facebook employee identified as whistle blower

Former Facebook employee Francis Haugen has revealed herself as the 'whistleblower' behind leaking tons of classified documents containing internal company research. These documents prove that the media giant has been negligent in eliminating violent and misleading content from their platform all while claiming to their investors of doing the same. During her stint in the company's civic integrity department,  Haugen realized that Facebook was hiding harmful effects about the product from the public and people who were tasked to regulate it, to such an extent that it, according to her, posed a threat to democracy. 

This data leak was the largest of its kind in Facebook's 17-year history. The company which was already at log heads with Washington Politicians found itself in the hot seat once again with the leak. Facebook was being investigated as part of a large-scale federal antitrust case for its involvement in the January 6th Capitol riots. The company was abetting from submitting the required documents to federal agents. Haugen revealed her identity on Sunday on the show "60 minutes". She said that if a dilemma arises to choose between the good of the public compared to the benefit of the platform, she constantly found Facebook choosing its own good.  Measure that was implemented to curb the spread of misinformation during the elections was shut down soon after, according to Haugen, this move prioritized the growth of the company over public safety.  Facebook spokesperson Lena Pietsch commented by saying that as a company their teams struggle to maintain a balance between "protecting the ability of billions of people to express themselves openly with the need to keep our platform a safe and positive place", she said that the allegations of promoting bad content are not true. 

Source: The Washington Post