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Facebook whistleblower says company relaxed misinformation filters after the 2020 election

Former Facebook Product Manager Frances Haugen spills company secrets in a new 60 Minutes interview.

Donovan Erskine

October 4, 2021 7:50 AM

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Facebook has long been under fire for concerns surrounding privacy, as well as the spread of misinformation and harmful information on the social media platform. Frances Haugen is an ex-employee of Facebook, serving as the company’s product manager up until her recent departure. Haugen sat down for an interview as a part of 60 Minutes, where she revealed that the misinformation filters that were put in place for the 2020 election were relaxed after it was over.

Frances Haugen was the subject of a recent segment of 60 Minutes on CBS. She sat down with host Scott Pelley to talk about what she learned when she got a hold of internal company documents. In the lead up to the 2020 Presidential Election, Facebook put in place some misinformation filters to halt the spread of blatantly false information in relation to candidates Joe Biden and Donald Trump. Facebook has become infamous for being the home of political propaganda and misinformation, and that issue would only be exacerbated by the pending election. However, internal documents reveal that those changes were only temporary.

“As soon as the election was over, they turned them off, or they turned the settings back to what they were before,” Haugen says in the interview. Although Facebook was well aware of the dangers that misinformation poses to the platform, the company made a deliberate choice to “prioritize growth over safety,” according to Haugen.

The claims that Facebook turned off its misinformation filters after the conclusion of the election reinforces the idea that the social media company is not very concerned with making the platform more safe and healthy for its users, and would rather do what drives more clicks and traffic. Frances Haugen revealed more about her experience working with Facebook, including the fact that she has filed multiple complaints with the SEC.

Donovan Erskine

News Editor

Donovan is a journalist from Maryland. His oldest gaming memory is playing Pajama Sam on his mom's desktop during weekends. Pokémon Emerald, Halo 2, and the original Star Wars Battlefront 2 were some of the most influential titles in awakening his love for video games. After interning for Shacknews throughout college, Donovan graduated from Bowie State University in 2020 with a major in broadcast journalism and joined the team full-time. He is a huge film fanatic and will talk with you about movies and games all day. You can follow him on twitter @Donimals_