London Daily

Focus on the big picture.
Thursday, Oct 02, 2025

Frances Haugen says Facebook is 'making hate worse'

Frances Haugen says Facebook is 'making hate worse'

Whistleblower Frances Haugen has told MPs Facebook is "unquestionably making hate worse", as they consider what new rules to impose on big social networks.

Ms Haugen was talking to the Online Safety Bill committee in London.

She said Facebook safety teams were under-resourced, and "Facebook has been unwilling to accept even little slivers of profit being sacrificed for safety".

And she warned that Instagram was "more dangerous than other forms of social media".

While other social networks were about performance, play, or an exchange of ideas, "Instagram is about social comparison and about bodies... about people's lifestyles, and that's what ends up being worse for kids", she told a joint committee of MPs and Lords.

She said Facebook's own research described one problem as "an addict's narrative" - where children are unhappy, can't control their use of the app, but feel like they cannot stop using it.

"I am deeply worried that it may not be possible to make Instagram safe for a 14-year-old, and I sincerely doubt that it is possible to make it safe for a 10-year-old," she said.

The committee is fine-tuning a proposed law that will place new duties on large social networks and subject them to checks by the media regulator Ofcom.

Asked if the law was "keeping Mark Zuckerberg awake at night", Ms Haugen said she was "incredibly proud of the UK for taking such a world-leading stance".

"The UK has a tradition of leading policy in ways that are followed around the world.

"I can't imagine Mark isn't paying attention to what you're doing."

British English problem


Ms Haugen also warned that Facebook was unable to police content in multiple languages around the world - something which should worry UK officials, she said.

"UK English is sufficiently different that I would be unsurprised if the safety systems that they developed primarily for American English were actually under-enforcing in the UK," she said.

And she said that dangerous misinformation in other languages affects people in Britain.

"Those people are also living in the UK, and being fed misinformation that is dangerous, that radicalises people," she warned.

Ms Haugen also urged the committee to include paid-for advertising in its new rules, saying the current system was "literally subsidising hate on these platforms" because of their algorithmic ranking.

"It is substantially cheaper to run an angry hateful divisive ad than it is to run a compassionate, empathetic ad," she said.

And she also urged MPs to require a breakdown of who is harmed by content, rather than an average figure - suggesting Facebook is "very good at dancing with data", but pushes people towards "extreme content".

Ms Haugen appeared at a joint committee of MPs and Lords

"The median experience on Facebook is a pretty good experience," she said.

"The real danger is that 20% of the population has a horrible experience or an experience that is dangerous," she said.

"Accept under-resourcing"


She warned that employees were unable to report internal concerns at Facebook - something she called a "huge weak spot".

"When I worked on counter-espionage, I saw things where I was concerned about national security, and I had no idea how to escalate those because I didn't have faith in my chain of command at that point," she told the committee.

And she warned: "We were told to accept under-resourcing."

Similar problems plague Facebook's Oversight Board, which can overturn the company's decisions on content, she said. She repeated her claim that Facebook has repeatedly lied to its own watchdog, and said this is a "defining moment" for the Oversight Board to "step up".

"I don't know what the purpose of the Oversight Board is," she said.

It comes as several news outlets published fresh stories based on the thousands of leaked documents Ms Haugen took with her when she left Facebook.

Facebook has characterised previous reporting as misleading, and at one point referred to the leaked documents as "stolen".

"Contrary to what was discussed at the hearing, we've always had the commercial incentive to remove harmful content from our sites," a spokesperson said, after Ms Haugen finished giving evidence.

"People don't want to see it when they use our apps, and advertisers don't want their ads next to it. That's why we've invested $13bn (£9.4bn) and hired 40,000 people to do one job: keep people safe on our apps. "

The company said that over the last three quarters it has halved the amount of hate speech seen on Facebook, which it claims now accounts for only 0.05% of all content viewed.

"While we have rules against harmful content and publish regular transparency reports, we agree we need regulation for the whole industry so that businesses like ours aren't making these decisions on our own," the spokesperson said.

"The UK is one of the countries leading the way and we're pleased the Online Safety Bill is moving forward."


An avalanche of information emerged on Monday from leaked Facebook documents - and it was hard to keep up.

Allegations include that the social media giant is aware of its role in inciting violence all around the world, or causing harm to its users from US and UK to India and Ethiopia.

A common theme runs through each of the stories. They all suggest a tension between employees raising the alarm about their concerns and a corporate machine that does not appear to be using this to inform its policies.

Reporters and journalists have been highlighting many of these same concerns, especially for the past 18 months. I've investigated the human cost of online disinformation and abuse again and again and exposed the damage being done to real people offline using these sites.

But until these documents were released by Ms Haugen, it was very difficult to know how aware Facebook was of that damage.

These latest leaks reinforce the idea that it is conscious of it - although it refutes a number of the claims.

And it means pressure is mounting on policymakers around the world to do something about it.


Watch: Frances Haugen tells MPs that Facebook "unquestionably" makes hate worse

 Monika Bickert: "It's in our financial interest to make sure that people have a good experience on our site".


Newsletter

Related Articles

0:00
0:00
Close
Trump Administration Launches “TrumpRx” Plan to Enable Direct Drug Sales at Deep Discounts
Trump Announces Intention to Impose 100 Percent Tariff on Foreign-Made Films
Altman Says GPT-5 Already Outpaces Him, Warns AI Could Automate 40% of Work
Singapore and Hong Kong Vie to Dominate Asia’s Rising Gold Trade
Trump Organization Teams with Saudi Developer on $1 Billion Trump Plaza in Jeddah
Manhattan Sees Surge in Office-to-Housing Conversions, Highest Since 2008
Switzerland and U.S. Issue Joint Assurance Against Currency Manipulation
Electronic Arts to Be Taken Private in Historic $55 Billion Buyout
Thomas Jacob Sanford Named as Suspect in Deadly Michigan Church Shooting and Arson
Russian Research Vessel 'Yantar' Tracked Mapping Europe’s Subsea Cables, Raising Security Alarms
New York Man Arrested After On-Air Confession to 2017 Parents’ Murders
U.S. Defense Chief Orders Sudden Summit of Hundreds of Generals and Admirals
Global Cruise Industry Posts Dramatic Comeback with 34.6 Million Passengers in 2024
Trump Claims FBI Planted 274 Agents at Capitol Riot, Citing Unverified Reports
India: Internet Suspended in Bareilly Amid Communal Clashes Between Muslims and Hindus
Supreme Court Extends Freeze on Nearly $5 Billion in U.S. Foreign Aid at Trump’s Request
Archaeologists Recover Statues and Temples from 2,000-Year-Old Sunken City off Alexandria
China Deploys 2,000 Workers to Spain to Build Major EV Battery Factory, Raising European Dependence
Speed Takes Over: How Drive-Through Coffee Chains Are Rewriting U.S. Coffee Culture
U.S. Demands Brussels Scrutinize Digital Rules to Prevent Bias Against American Tech
Ringo Starr Champions Enduring Beatles Legacy While Debuting Las Vegas Art Show
Private Equity’s Fundraising Surge Triggers Concern of European Market Shake-Out
Colombian President Petro Vows to Mobilize Volunteers for Gaza and Joins List of Fighters
FBI Removes Agents Who Kneeled at 2020 Protest, Citing Breach of Professional Conduct
Trump Alleges ‘Triple Sabotage’ at United Nations After Escalator and Teleprompter Failures
Shock in France: 5 Years in Prison for Former President Nicolas Sarkozy
Tokyo’s Jimbōchō Named World’s Coolest Neighbourhood for 2025
European Officials Fear Trump May Shift Blame for Ukraine War onto EU
BNP Paribas Abandons Ban on 'Controversial Weapons' Financing Amid Europe’s Defence Push
Typhoon Ragasa Leaves Trail of Destruction Across East Asia Before Making Landfall in China
The Personality Rights Challenge in India’s AI Era
Big Banks Rebuild in Hong Kong as Deal Volume Surges
Italy Considers Freezing Retirement Age at 67 to Avert Scheduled Hike
Italian City to Impose Tax on Visiting Dogs Starting in 2026
Arnault Denounces Proposed Wealth Tax as Threat to French Economy
Study Finds No Safe Level of Alcohol for Dementia Risk
Denmark Investigates Drone Incursion, Does Not Rule Out Russian Involvement
Lilly CEO Warns UK Is ‘Worst Country in Europe’ for Drug Prices, Pulls Back Investment
Nigel Farage Emerges as Central Force in British Politics with Reform UK Surge
Disney Reinstates ‘Jimmy Kimmel Live!’ after Six-Day Suspension over Charlie Kirk Comments
U.S. Prosecutors Move to Break Up Google’s Advertising Monopoly
Nvidia Pledges Up to $100 Billion Investment in OpenAI to Power Massive AI Data Center Build-Out
U.S. Signals ‘Large and Forceful’ Support for Argentina Amid Market Turmoil
Nvidia and Abu Dhabi’s TII Launch First AI-&-Robotics Lab in the Middle East
Vietnam Faces Up to $25 Billion Export Loss as U.S. Tariffs Bite
Europe Signals Stronger Support for Taiwan at Major Taipei Defence Show
Indonesia Court Upholds Military Law Amid Concerns Over Expanded Civilian Role
Larry Ellison, Michael Dell and Rupert Murdoch Join Trump-Backed Bid to Take Over TikTok
Trump and Musk Reunite Publicly for First Time Since Fallout at Kirk Memorial
Vietnam Closes 86 Million Untouched Bank Accounts Over Biometric ID Rules
×