“Facebook Papers”

It’s been over two months since whistleblower Frances Haugen came out and revealed to the world what Facebook really looks like. Since then, the former employee of the social media has testified at the American and British parliamentarians, finally presenting herself also to the European Parliament. Haugen’s request, previously also a Google employee, is to set rules that limit the almost unlimited range of action offered by the Internet. According to what is shown by internal documents shared by Haugen, Facebook would in fact put the mere profit before the health of users. The multiple inquiries that took the name of “Facebook Papers” had revealed how the social networks owned by Mark Zuckerberg polarized the public debate, riding hate messages in order to multiply their profits.

On November 8th, Haugen gave a lengthy speech to the European Parliament, in which she reiterated the salient points of her complaints. In the speech, Haugen clamored for a regulation of the states against Big Tech, whose work would be almost unknown outside the walls of the giants located in Silicon Valley. “We still have time to act, but we have to do it now,” the whistleblower said. The message is clear: we need a sudden change and this will certainly not come from social networks, intending to continue on the same path. When there are no rules, the game becomes easy for multinationals. It is useless to represent fake successes through a ridiculous minimum tax on multinationals. The issue is not just about money, but about the more everyday aspects of our life.

PS: A whistleblower (also written as whistle-blower or whistle blower) is a person, usually an employee, who exposes information or activity within a private, public, or government organization that is deemed illegal, illicit, unsafe, fraud, or abuse of taxpayer funds.