"The testimony ... raises significant concerns about
whether Facebook has misled the public, federal regulators, and this
committee," said Cantwell, a Democrat. "This committee will continue its
oversight and work to pursue legislation to protect consumers' privacy, improve
data security, and strengthen federal enforcement to address the digital harms
that are the subject of these hearings."
She asked Facebook to preserve and retain internal Facebook
research referenced by Haugen and Facebook's evaluation of the research;
ranking or composition systems; experiments or recommendations to change those
ranking systems and the impact of Facebook's platforms on children and
teenagers under the age of 18.
Facebook spokesman Andy Stone said in response the company
has "absolutely no commercial incentive, no moral incentive, no
company-wide incentive to do anything other than to try to give the maximum
number of people as much of a positive experience as possible on
Facebook."
Cantwell's letter cited "the potential danger that
social media platforms pose for spreading divisive content was demonstrated,
with horrifying consequences, by the role the Facebook platform played in
fomenting ethnic violence against the Rohingya."
She added "the role of Facebook's platform in the
Rohingya tragedy illustrates the horrible consequences that failing to
effectively limit the spread of divisive content on social media platforms can
have in inflicting public harm."
Last month, a US judge ordered Facebook to release records
of accounts connected to anti-Rohingya violence in Myanmar that the social
media giant had shut down, rejecting its argument about protecting privacy as
"rich with irony."
Last week, the Commerce Committee harshly criticised
Facebook, accusing Zuckerberg of pushing for higher profits while being
cavalier about user safety, and demanded regulators investigate whistleblower
accusations that the social media company harms children's mental health and
stokes divisions.
Zuckerberg defended the company, saying the accusations were
at odds with Facebook's goals.
Haugen called for transparency about how Facebook entices
users to keep scrolling, creating ample opportunity for advertisers to reach
them.
Haugen, a former product manager on Facebook's civic
misinformation team, left the nearly $1 trillion company with tens of thousands
of confidential documents. -Reuters