Facebook gets a case of the Mondays

The social media site and its subsidiaries Instagram and WhatsApp experienced unexplained outages for about six hours on Monday. Facebook’s stock price fell by about 4.9 percent throughout the day following a devastating interview on 60 Minutes Sunday with former employee and whistleblower Frances Haugen. She was recruited in 2019 to work for Facebook, focusing on misinformation and civic integrity. She said a 2018 change allowed the algorithm that determines what people see when they look at Facebook to favor hateful content and harmful messaging. The change increased interactions and boosted revenue. She also said that after the 2020 election, Facebook dissolved its civic integrity unit and turned off misinformation safeguards. 

What did Facebook do wrong? Haugen filed eight complaints with the Securities and Exchange Commission alleging the tech giant is hiding research from investors and from the public. Since 2018, Facebook’s revenue has jumped from $56 billion to a projected $119 billion for 2021. Facebook refuted Haugen’s claims and said it is continually working to combat the spread of misinformation. Haugen is scheduled to testify before a Senate subcommittee on Tuesday.

Dig deeper: Read Harvest Prude’s report in The Stew about conservative backlash to Big Tech censorship.