Facebook whistleblower issues online safety advice to Oireachtas

Frances Haugen, the whistleblower who last year leaked internal documents from Facebook and accused it of prioritising its growth over users’ safety, has issued tech regulation advice to the Oireachtas.

Last October, the former Facebook employee testified before the Parliament of the United Kingdom, and subsequently to the European Parliament last November.

During her testimony, she notably advocated for government regulation of Facebook.

Ms Haugen appeared virtually before the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Tourism, Culture, Arts, Sport and Media, and also recently took part in a radio interview with Newstalk.

She said that while Ireland has a unique role to play in holding social media companies to account, she stressed that the Irish Government needs to establish a new online safety regime.

Data Scientist and former Facebook employee Frances Haugen. Pic: Twitter

The Iowa native, who now resides in Puerto Rico, explained: "The tech companies on your shores have, once again, got away with it.

"As you create an independent, robust and effective online safety regulator, you must launch an independent review into the Data Protection Committee, so that it too can start to enforce the law thoroughly and boldly," she added.

Ms Haughen urged the govt to reflect deeply on its own role, as well as "on the responsibilities which come with housing these social media manipulation machines."

She also discussed the limits of Artificial Intelligence, such as the algorithm present in Facebook, in identifying offensive comments or speech, and claimed that "some of the most egregious harms caused by the decisions made in the shiny, glass headquarters of Facebook in Dublin have been in faraway places like Myanmar and Ethiopia."

In response, Facebook's parent company Meta has denied the accusations and says that it has invested billions of dollars in safety and security.

"Contrary to claims about our company, we've always had the commercial incentive to remove harmful content from our platform," a spokesperson for the multinational giant said.