Blumenthal Chairs Hearing With Facebook Whistleblower Frances Haugen

[WASHINGTON, D.C.] – Today, U.S. Senator Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), Chair of the Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Subcommittee on Consumer Protection, Product Safety, and Data Security, delivered opening remarks at a hearing titled “Protecting Kids Online: Testimony from a Facebook Whistleblower.” Frances Haugen, the Facebook whistleblower, appeared at the hearing, which was the third in a series of bipartisan hearings spearheaded by Blumenthal and Ranking Member U.S. Senator Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) to inform legislation and prompt action by social media companies to address harms and dangers faced by children online.

“I want to give you my heartfelt gratitude for your courage and strength in coming forward as you have done, standing up to one of the most powerful, implacable corporate giants in the history of the world without any exaggeration,” Blumenthal told Haugen. “Among other revelations, the information you have provided to Congress is powerful proof that Facebook knew its products were harming teenagers. Facebook exploited teens using powerful algorithms that amplified their insecurities and abuses through what it found was an addict’s narrative.”

In response to reporting in the Wall Street Journal on Facebook’s knowledge of its platforms’ negative impact on teenagers and young users, Blumenthal said, “It is documented proof that Facebook knows its products can be addictive and toxic to children, and it’s not just that they made money. Again, it’s that they valued their profit more than the pain that they caused to children and their families…The damage to self-interest and self-worth inflicted by Facebook today will haunt a generation. Feelings of inadequacy and insecurity, rejection, self-hatred will impact this generation for years to come. Our children are the ones who are victims.”

Blumenthal also called on Mark Zuckerberg to testify before the committee to explain Facebook’s harmful practices. “Mark Zuckerberg ought to be looking at himself in the mirror today and yet rather than taking responsibility and showing leadership, Mr. Zuckerberg is going sailing…Mark Zuckerberg, you need to come before this committee. You need to explain to Frances Haugen, to us, to the world, and to the parents of America what you were doing and why you did it.”

In his concluding remarks, Blumenthal called on the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Federal Trade Commission to investigate Haugen’s claims. “Facebook appears to have misled the public and investors and if that's correct, it ought to face real penalties as a result of that misleading and deceptive misrepresentation…Parents are holding Facebook accountable because of your bravery, Ms. Haugen, and we need to hold accountable Facebook and all Big Tech as well.”

Video of Blumenthal’s opening remarks can be found here, and a transcript is copied below.

U.S. Senator Richard Blumenthal (D-CT): The meeting and hearing for the subcommittee will come to order. I am very pleased to welcome my colleagues, and I want to thank Ranking Member Senator Blackburn for your cooperation and collaboration. We've been working very closely. And the ranking member who is here, Senator Wicker, as well as our Chairwoman, Maria Cantwell. Senator Cantwell I'm sure will be here shortly.

Most important, I'd like to thank our witness Frances Haugen for being here and the two counsel who are representing her today and I want to give you my heartfelt gratitude for your courage and strength in coming forward as you have done, standing up to one of the most powerful, implacable corporate giants in the history of the world without any exaggeration. You have a compelling, credible voice, which we've heard already, but you are not here alone. You're armed with documents and evidence, and you speak volumes, as they do, about how Facebook has put profits ahead of people.

Among other revelations, the information you have provided to Congress is powerful proof that Facebook knew its products were harming teenagers. Facebook exploited teens using powerful algorithms that amplified their insecurities and abuses through what it found was an addict's narrative. There is a question, which I hope you will discuss, as to whether there is such a thing as a safe algorithm.

Facebook saw teens creating secret accounts that are often hidden from their parents as “unique value proposition.” In their words, “a unique value proposition.” A way to drive up numbers for advertisers and shareholders at the expense of safety. And it doubled down on targeting children, pushing products on preteens, not just teens, but preteens. That it knows are harmful to our kids' mental health and well-being. Instead of telling parents, Facebook concealed the facts, it sought to stone wall and block this information from becoming public, including to this committee when Senator Blackburn and I specifically asked the company.

And still, even now, as of just last Thursday when a Facebook witness came before this committee, it has refused disclosure or even to tell us when it might decide whether to disclose additional documents. And they've continued their tactics even after they knew the destruction it caused. It isn’t just that they made money from these practices, but they continued to profit from them. Their profit was more important than the pain that they caused.

Last Thursday, a message from Ms. Antigone Davis, Facebook’s Global Head of Safety, was simple. “This research is not a bombshell.” And she repeated the line. Not a bombshell. Well, this research is the very definition of a bombshell. Facebook and Big Tech are facing a big tobacco moment. A moment of reckoning. Parallel is striking. I sued big tobacco as Connecticut's attorney general. I helped to lead the states in that legal action and I remember very, very well the moment in the course of our litigation when we learned of those files that showed not only that big tobacco knew that its product caused cancer, but that they had done the research, they concealed the files, and now we knew and the world knew and Big Tech now faces that big tobacco, jaw dropping moment of truth. It is documented proof that Facebook knows its products can be addictive and toxic to children and it's not just that they made money. Again, it's that they valued their profit more than the pain that they caused to children and their families.

The damage to self-interest and self-worth inflicted by Facebook today will haunt a generation. Feelings of inadequacy and insecurity, rejection, self-hatred will impact this generation for years to come. Our children are the ones who are victims. Teens today looking at themselves in the mirror feel doubt and insecurity. Mark Zuckerberg ought to be looking at himself in the mirror today and yet rather than taking responsibility and showing leadership, Mr. Zuckerberg is going sailing. His new modus operandi, no apologies, no admission, no action, nothing to see here. Mark Zuckerberg, you need to come before this committee. You need to explain to Frances Haugen, to us, to the world, and to the parents of America what you were doing and why you did it.

Instagram's business model is pretty straightforward. More eyeballs, more dollars. Everything Facebook does is to add more users and keep them on their apps for longer. In order to hook us, Instagram uses our private information to precisely target us with content and recommendations, assessing that what will provoke a reaction will keep us scrolling. Far too often, these recommendations encourage our most destructive and dangerous behaviors. As we showed on Thursday, we created a fake account, my office and I did, as a teen interested in extreme dieting and eating disorders. Instagram latched on to that teenager's initial insecurities and then pushed more content and recommendations, glorifying eating disorders. That's how Instagram's algorithms can push teens into darker and darker places. Facebook's own researchers called it Instagram's, “perfect storm,” exacerbating downward spirals.

Facebook, as you have put it, Ms. Haugen, so powerfully, maximizes profits and ignores pain. Facebook's failure to acknowledge and to act makes it morally bankrupt. Again and again, Facebook rejected reforms recommended by its own researchers. Last week, Ms. Davis said, “we're looking at it.” No specific plans, no commitments, only vague platitudes. These documents that you have revealed provided this company with a blueprint for reform, provided specific recommendations that could have made Facebook and Instagram safer. The company repeatedly ignored those recommendations from its own researchers that would have made Facebook and Instagram safer. Facebook researchers have suggested changing their recommendations to stop promoting accounts known to encourage dangerous body comparison. Instead of making meaningful changes, Facebook simply pays lip service and if they won't act, and if Big Tech won't act, Congress has to intervene. Privacy protection is long overdue.

Senator Markey and I have introduced the KIDS Act, which would ban addictive tactics that Facebook uses to exploit children. Parents deserve better tools to protect their children. I'm also a firm supporter of reforming Section 230. We should consider narrowing this sweeping immunity when platform's algorithms amplify illegal conduct. You commented on this in your testimony and perhaps you'll expand on it.

We've also heard compelling recommendations about requiring disclosures of research and independent reviews of these platform's algorithms and I plan to pursue these ideas. The Securities and Exchange Commission should investigate your intentions and claims, Ms. Haugen, and so should the Federal Trade Commission. Facebook appears to have misled the public and investors and if that's correct, it ought to face real penalties as a result of that misleading and deceptive misrepresentation.

I want to thank all my colleagues who are here today because what we have is a bipartisan Congressional roadmap for reform that will safeguard and protect children from Big Tech. That will be a focus of our subcommittee moving forward and it will continue to be bipartisan.

And finally, I'll just end on this note. In the path weeks and days, parents have contacted me with their stories, heartbreaking and spine chilling stories about children pushed into eating disorders, bullying online, self-injury of the most disturbing kind and sometimes even taking their lives because of social media. Parents are holding Facebook accountable because of your bravery, Ms. Haugen, and we need to hold accountable Facebook and all Big Tech as well. Again, my thanks to you. I am going to enter into the record a letter from 52 state attorneys general and from two members of the Youth Advisory Board of Sandy Hook Promise, as long as there's no objection and now I'll turn to the ranking member, Senator Blackburn.

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