Frances Haugen: Mark Zuckerberg should quit Facebook

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Facebook whistleblower Frances Haugen made her strongest call yet for Mark Zuckerberg to step down as CEO of his social media empire, saying the business would be better off with a leader focused on user safety.

Frances Haugen said the parent company of Facebook, which was renamed last week, is unlikely to change if its founder remains in charge. Speaking at the Lisbon Web Summit, the former Facebook employee, who leaked tens of thousands of internal documents detailing the company’s struggle with user safety and misinformation, criticized Zuckerberg’s “unreasonable” decision to invest in its core concept rather than focus on reform. its current problems.

Asked if Zuckerberg should step down, Hogan said: “I think Facebook will be stronger with someone who is willing to focus on safety, so yes.”

However, Haugen acknowledged that Zuckerberg’s control of the Meta was a problem for any independent shareholders who might want to change at the top. Zuckerberg controls the company’s decision-making process through his majority ownership of Meta’s voting shares, making his position non-negotiable.

Mark owns 54% of the voting shares in Facebook. He’s the chairman and CEO and I think at least the shareholders have the right to choose their CEO. And so I think it’s very unlikely the company will change if he remains CEO,” Haugen said.

“And I hope he can see that there’s a lot of good he can do in the world, and maybe a chance for someone else to maybe take over.”

Haugen also criticized the strategic shift behind the company’s abrupt rebranding last week, with Zuckerberg committing a major investment in the metaverse, a space in which people’s digital representations — avatars — interact at work and play, meeting at their offices, going to concerts and even trying to dress.

Haugen said documents she submitted to Congress, regulators and the press made clear that the company needed to spend more on basic safety systems rather than expanding into virtual reality.

Documents released by Haugen revealed that Meta was aware that the Instagram photo-sharing app had been accused of exacerbating the mental health problems of teenage girls, and that its employees were appalled by the failure to stop the spread of misinformation in the lead-up to the January 6 riots in Washington, and that Facebook was helping fuel ethnic violence in Ethiopia.

“I think there is a defining problem with Facebook that Facebook is repeatedly choosing to expand into new territories rather than stick to what they have already done, and I find it implausible, as you read through the docs, that there is clearly a need for more resources on safety systems Very basic.”

Haugen added that her actions were motivated by the belief that Facebook needed to change in order to save lives. “I really think there’s a million, maybe 10 million people on the line in the next 20 years, and compared to that, nothing feels like a real outcome.”

Haugen’s appearance at the top of the web follows her testimony in the US Congress and in Westminster last month. In London, she told MPs and peers that urgent outside regulation was needed to rein in the tech company’s management. Haugen was speaking on a joint committee examining the online security bill, which imposes a duty of care on social media companies to protect users from harmful content. Meta apps, including Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp, are used daily by 2.8 billion people.

In response to Haugen’s comments, a Meta spokesperson said: “The argument that we are deliberately promoting content that makes people angry for profit makes absolutely no sense. We are on track to spend more than $5 billion on safety and security in 2021 – more than any other Another tech company — and we’ve got 40,000 people to do one thing: keep people safe on our apps.”

The spokesperson added that Meta was able to invest in expansion and security at the same time. “Obviously, we can and should do both of these things at the same time – and we are.”

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