London Daily

Focus on the big picture.
Thursday, Sep 18, 2025

Facebook whistleblower Frances Haugen 'cautiously optimistic' about Elon Musk Twitter acquisition

Facebook whistleblower Frances Haugen 'cautiously optimistic' about Elon Musk Twitter acquisition

Musk has expressed interest in open sourcing Twitter's algorithm, vowed to crack down on spam bots

Facebook whistleblower Frances Haugen is "cautiously optimistic" that Elon Musk's $44 billion deal to take Twitter private at $54.20 per share could lead to positive change for democracy and safety on the social media platform.


Haugen made headlines last year after accusing her former employer of prioritizing profits over user safety in press interviews and testimony to Congress and sharing thousands of internal Facebook documents on topics ranging from Instagram's impact on teens to hate speech and misinformation on its platforms.

"I've maintained since my first testimony that I think a lot of the problems that we're facing on social media are a result of a business model," Haugen tells FOX Business.

She argues that Facebook struggles to address its issues because CEO Mark Zuckerberg has "surrounded himself with people who tell him what he wants to hear."

In comparison, she believes Musk is an independent thinker who can take hard feedback and has a data-driven perspective that could lead to meaningful product safety and design changes.

Haugen argues that Facebook struggles to address its issues because CEO Mark Zuckerberg has "surrounded himself with people who tell him what he wants to hear." 


"I have a feeling that Facebook is going to rationalize to itself that it can't really do anything different than it already does because of the demands of the market," Haugen says. "I think there's a huge opportunity here for Elon to really demonstrate that there's another way forward."

Musk, a self-described "free speech absolutist", has expressed interest in open sourcing Twitter's algorithm to increase transparency on the platform. Haugen says that opening the up the platform's algorithm to researchers and academics will ultimately foster more trust in Twitter.

"One of the key parts about a system as critical as Twitter for our democratic processes is whether or not people trust that the system is fair. And right now, I would say that trust in Twitter is a little bit in flux," Haugen emphasizes. "The number one most important thing [Elon] can do is institute real transparency. Transparency is how he's going to go to prove that he's acting in ways that are aligned with the public good and it’s how he's going to build trust in his ability to run the system."

Musk has also vowed to crack down on Twitter's spam bots.

"That kind of action is potentially dangerous when you have a publicly traded company because the number of users you have will go down," Haugen notes. "That's a good sign Elon is going to be wanting to do those kinds of structural changes that Twitter may have not been as brave to do when they had to have their hands tied by making sure the number of users they had went up every single quarter."


Musk's deal for Twitter is expected to close in 2022, subject to the approval of its stockholders, the receipt of applicable regulatory approvals and the satisfaction of other customary closing conditions.

Haugen's comments come as Facebook has shifted its focus on building the metaverse, a computer-generated environment where users will be able to work and interact with one another in virtual reality. She says the metaverse is an attempt to avoid taking responsibility for the problems on Facebook and Instagram.


"When [Mark Zuckerberg] announced the metaverse, they spent five minutes making empty platitudes about safety by design," Haugen says."We should be like, "Hey, publish your safety by design plan." Don't tell us, show us, because I think they're going to reproduce all the challenges they face on Facebook only with a platform that's more immersive and more decentralized."

Newsletter

Related Articles

0:00
0:00
Close
Massive Strikes in France Pressure Macron and New PM on Austerity Proposals
Trump Seeks Supreme Court Permission to Remove Fed Governor Lisa Cook
Hillary Clinton’s Reckless Rhetoric Fuels Division After Charlie Kirk’s Assassination
NASDAQ Rises to Record as Intel Soars More Than 20%, Nvidia Gains 3%
Nvidia’s $5 Billion Bet on Intel Reshapes AI Hardware Landscape
Trump and Starmer Clash Over UK Recognition of Palestinian State Amid State Visit
Trump’s Quip on Biden and Google Lawsuit Revives Debate Over Antitrust Legacy
Macron and his wife to provide 'scientific photographic evidence' that she is a real woman
US Tech Giants Pledge Billions to UK AI Infrastructure Following Starmer's Call
Saudi Arabia cracks down on music ‘lounges’ after conservative backlash
DeepMind and OpenAI Achieve Gold at ‘Coding Olympics’ in AI Milestone
SEC Allows Public Companies to Block Investors from Class-Action Lawsuits
Saudi Arabia Signs ‘Strategic Mutual Defence’ Pact with Pakistan, Marking First Arab State to Gain Indirect Access to Nuclear Strike Capabilities in the Region
Federal Reserve Cuts Rates by Quarter Point and Signals More to Come
Effective and Impressive Generation Z Protest: Images from the Riots in Nepal
European manufacturers against ban on polluting cars: "The industry may collapse"
Sam Altman sells the 'Wedding Estate' in Hawaii for 49 million dollars
Trump: Cancel quarterly company reports and settle for reporting once every six months
Turkish car manufacturer Togg Enters German Market with 5-Star Electric Sedan and SUV to Challenge European EV Brands
US Launches New Pilot Program to Accelerate eVTOL Air Taxi Deployment
Christian Brueckner Released from German Prison after Serving Unrelated Sentence
World’s Longest Direct Flight China Eastern to Launch 29-Hour Shanghai–Buenos Aires Direct Flight via Auckland in December
New OpenAI Study Finds Majority of ChatGPT Use Is Personal, Not Professional
Hong Kong Industry Group Calls for HK$20 Billion Support Fund to Ease Property Market Stress
Joe Biden’s Post-Presidency Speaking Fees Face Weak Demand amid Corporate Reluctance
Charlie Kirk's murder will break the left's hateful cancel tactics
Kash Patel erupts at ‘buffoon’ Sen. Adam Schiff over Russiagate: ‘You are the biggest fraud’
Homeland Security says Emmy speech ‘fanning the flames of hatred’ after Einbinder’s ‘F— ICE’ remark
Charlie Kirk’s Alleged Assassin Tyler Robinson Faces Death Penalty as Charges Formally Announced
Actor, director, environmentalist Robert Redford dies at 89
The conservative right spreads westward: a huge achievement for 'Alternative for Germany' in local elections
JD Vance Says There Is “No Unity” with Those Who Celebrate Charlie Kirk’s Killing, and he is right!
Trump sues the 'New York Times' for an astronomical sum of 15 billion dollars
Florida Hospital Welcomes Its Largest-Ever Baby: Annan, Nearly Fourteen Pounds at Birth
U.S. and Britain Poised to Finalize Over $10 Billion in High-Tech, Nuclear and Defense Deals During Trump State Visit
China Finds Nvidia Violated Antitrust Laws in Mellanox Deal, Deepens Trade Tensions with US
US Air Force Begins Modifications on Qatar-Donated Jet Amid Plans to Use It as Air Force One
Pope Leo Warns of Societal Crisis Over Mega-CEO Pay, Citing Tesla’s Proposed Trillion-Dollar Package
Poland Green-Lights NATO Deployment in Response to Major Russian Drone Incursion
Elon Musk Retakes Lead as World’s Richest After Brief Ellison Surge
U.S. and China Agree on Framework to Shift TikTok to American Ownership
London Daily Podcast: London Massive Pro Democracy Rally, Musk Support, UK Economic Data and Premier League Results Mark Eventful Weekend
This Week in AI: Meta’s Superintelligence Push, xAI’s Ten Billion-Dollar Raise, Genesis AI’s Robotics Ambitions, Microsoft Restructuring, Amazon’s Million-Robot Milestone, and Google’s AlphaGenome Update
Le Pen Tightens the Pressure on Macron as France Edges Toward Political Breakdown
Musk calls for new UK government at huge pro-democracy rally in London, but Britons have been brainwashed to obey instead of fighting for their human rights
Elon Musk responds to post calling for the murder of Erika Kirk, widow of Charlie Kirk: 'Either we fight back or they will kill us'
Czech Republic signs €1.34 billion contract for Leopard 2A8 main battle tanks with delivery from 2028
USA: Office Depot Employees Refused to Print Poster in Memory of Charlie Kirk – and Were Fired
Proposed U.S. Bill Would Allow Civil Suits Against Judges Who Release Repeat Violent Offenders
Penske Media Sues Google Over “AI Overviews,” Claiming It Uses Journalism Without Consent and Destroys Traffic
×