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Frances Haugen: "The EU can change the rules of the game"
Frances Haugen continues to claim that Facebook is a threat to democracy. The former employee of the social network responsible for leaking more than 1,000 internal company documents where she proves the harmful impact that the social media giant has, continues her fight to try to do justice.
The former engineer of the platform, Frances Haugen has appeared this Monday, November 8, before the European Parliament trying to raise her voice. There he has given more details about the scandal unleashed by all his revelations and that he is still waiting for justice to be done.
During the session before Consumer Protection and the Internal Market Committee, which lasted more than two hours, Frances Haugen demanded more transparency mechanisms so that they can control and supervise the Facebook company now known as Meta.
Likewise, it has praised the Digital Services Law (DSA), the regulation in which the European Union (EU) works and that would be forcing the largest technology companies to eliminate all illegal content and actually report how their algorithms work.
"All of this can help inspire other countries, including mine. You can look for rules that help protect our democracies. You can create a game changer for the world," Haugen added.
Deep Throat
This is how the last great scandal of the Facebook company has become known where the former employee of the social network insists on the need to force these companies to be much more transparent to achieve access to all their data and thus be able to control its operation.
The platform stands out for using automated AI (Artificial Intelligence) systems to be able to detect all dangerous content and to be able to stop misinformation. However, Frances Haugen has been extremely skeptical of this technological system, which is why she has said the following:
"Artificial intelligence really isn't smart. That's like putting a million elementary school students to solve a problem. They can't really understand things."
Lack of transparency
The Facebook platform has been able to keep its internal mechanisms safe, away from public scrutiny. "All of this has resulted in regulators not being able to audit their system, but instead being forced to trust a company that has misled users, its shareholders and the government".
"Virtually no one outside of Facebook really knows how much is going on in there and that's pretty scary," explained former employee Frances Haugen, who was a product manager for the company's civic integrity department.
In the same way I add: "If this social network continues to operate in the dark, then the strategies will follow". According to its leaks, it has been revealed that Instagram accentuates the insecurity and mental problems of most adolescents by recommending content harmful to their health.
"We trust that children do not use these platforms, but there is no type of control for them," said the former Facebook employee.
Facebook is reborn in Meta
Frances Haugen has called Meta a forward flight to try to deflect her giant reputational criticism. Meta is the new name of Facebook, and it hosts other social networks such as WhatsApp and Instagram.
He has also taken the opportunity to make clear his opinion about the bet of Mark Zuckerberg, who has launched the Metaverse, an immersive virtual ecosystem and who hopes to turn it into the Internet of the future. "It is a bad idea to fill our offices or houses with the sensors of a company that does not respect our privacy."
The former Facebook employee right now is on a route through Europe wanting to be heard. That is how last week he appeared before the British Parliament to answer all the doubts of his legislators and by the end of this week he will be doing the same in Paris, France.