Facebook whistleblower Frances Haugen says Mark Zuckerberg is 'not willing to protect the public from harm' as she prepares to give evidence to MPs this week 

• Frances Haugen is set to give evidence before MP and peers tomorrow 
• The former Facebook employee has leaked thousands of company documents
• She said Facebook 'harms children, stokes division and weakens our democracy'
• Haugen also believes Zuckerberg is 'unaccountable' and 'has all the control' over Facebook's policies and practices 
• She will testify before a parliamentary committee scrutinising the draft 'Online Safety Bill' which could shape future regulation of tech firms and social media 

The inner workings of Facebook are set to be laid bare in front of MPs from tomorrow as whistleblower Frances Haugen prepares to testify on the social media giant's failure to 'protect the public' from harmful content.

Ex-Facebook employee Haugen has levelled blistering criticism at her former employer in recent weeks since she leaked thousands of pages of internal research documents she secretly copied before leaving her job in the company's civic integrity unit.

She insisted that co-founder and CEO of Facebook Mark Zuckerberg has shown 'no desire' to run the company in a way that protects the public from the consequences of harmful content, accusing the platform's controlling shareholder of being a tyrant.

'Right now, Mark is unaccountable. He has all the control,' Haugen declared in an interview with the Observer.  

Zuckerberg has rejected the claims made by his former employee, saying her attacks on the company were 'misrepresenting' the work it does. 

The whistleblower will face questions tomorrow from a parliamentary committee scrutinising the draft Online Safety Bill, as the Government works out how to go about regulating tech firms and social media.

Haugen, who resigned from her role as a Facebook product manager earlier this year, is responsible for leaking tens of thousands of internal documents which have caused alarm over the company's practices amid its astounding social influence. 

The former Facebook employee said she the documents because she realised that the company would not change otherwise with Zuckerberg at the helm, believing Facebook needs 'the will' to initiate a major cultural change.

'Zuckerberg has not demonstrated that he is willing to govern the company at the level that is necessary for public safety,' said Haugen in the Observer interview. 

'I believe in shareholder rights and the shareholders, or shareholders minus Mark, have been asking for years for one share one vote. 

'The reason for that is, I am pretty sure the shareholders would choose other leadership if they had an option.'

She has already spoken out about the social network across the pond on television and in front of politicians, alleging Facebook's platforms 'harm children, stoke division and weaken our democracy', and that it refuses to change its products because executives elevate profits over safety.

Kara Alaimo, the former spokesperson for President Barack Obama's Treasury Department, has echoed Haugen's claims and is calling for Zuckerberg to resign because 'has done little to try to fix' the problems with the social media behemoth.

'It's clear that he lacks the moral inclination or the capacity to solve these problems. Either way, he's got to go,' she said. 

'The public has lost faith in Facebook, and rightly so. For all the family photos shared or funny videos consumed that the company has made possible, 'Facebook' is now also a name associated in recent years with misinformation, privacy violations, and the spread of hate.'

It comes as documents exposed by Haugen show Facebook researchers were warning that the company's services were filled with religious hate speech between the India's Hindu and Muslim populations leading up to the Delhi riots in 2020 which killed 53 people. 

'The test user's News Feed has become a near constant barrage of polarizing nationalist content, misinformation, and violence and gore,' one Facebook researcher wrote in a report - issues which some have alleged Facebook ignored due to their ties with India's ruling party.

Zuckerberg meanwhile has steadfastly denied Haugen's claims, insisting that his company 'cares deeply about issues like safety, well-being and mental health' and that Haugen's criticism of the social media giant's priorities 'just doesn't reflect the company we know'.

'At the heart of these accusations is this idea that we prioritise profit over safety and well-being. That's just not true,' he added.

But Draft Online Safety Bill (Joint Committee) chairman Damian Collins, said in an interview with BBC Radio 4: '[Haugen's] central argument is that when given the choice between harmful content that sometimes drives engagement, keeps people on the platform, or protecting people, Facebook favours engagement and that is part of the problem here.' 

It comes after documents leaked by Haugen showed that several Facebook employees claimed the platform was 'fuelling the fire of violence' online at the time of the Capitol riots in the US on January 6.

Haugen said that Facebook had rolled back a 'toolkit' of measures designed to slow the spread of misinformation and posts inciting violence while selectively banning accounts in the run up to the riots in which protestors overran the Capitol building in D.C. and five people died. 

'Haven't we had enough time to figure out how to manage discourse without enabling violence?' one employee wrote on an internal message board at the height of the Jan. 6 turmoil. 

'We´ve been fuelling this fire for a long time and we shouldn't be surprised it's now out of control.'

Meanwhile, Facebook's vice-president of integrity Guy Rosen said the company had done its utmost to protect the public during and after the election and that 'responsibility for the [Capitol riots] lies with those who broke the law during the attack and those who incited them'.

Monika Bickert, Facebook's vice president of content policy, has personally declared that the company has a commercial incentive to remove harmful content from its sites for advertising purposes.

She also wrote in the Sunday Telegraph that 'research doesn't conclude that Instagram is inherently bad for teenagers.

'While some teens told us Instagram made them feel worse when they were struggling with issues like loneliness, anxiety and sadness, more teens told us that Instagram made them feel better when experiencing these same issues.

'But if even one young person feels worse, that's one too many, so we use our research to understand bad experiences and prevent them.'

Haugen however has accused the tech giant of being aware of the apparent harm Instagram could have on some teenagers and their body image, and said the firm had been dishonest in its public fight against hate content and misinformation by hiding research that shows it amplifies such content. 

Facebook is reportedly planning to rebrand its business name in an apparent bid to distance its wider business from the slew of controversies in recent years.

One of its latest big ideas is the so-called metaverse, a 3D online world the firm wants to lead the way on building, in which people can meet, play and work virtually, often using virtual reality headsets.

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