Frances Haugen

Facebook Whistleblower Frances Haugen to Speak Nov 1 at Fairfield University

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From the U.S. Congress to the U.K. and E.U. parliaments, Facebook whistleblower Frances Haugen has engaged international lawmakers in dialogue on how best to address the perils of social media. — an announcement from Fairfield University

Haugen will bring the conversation to the Regina A. Quick Center for the Arts in an Open VISIONS Forum lecture titled “Ethics, the Public Good, and the Challenge of Social Media” on Tuesday, Nov. 1, at 7:30 p.m.

Recruited in June 2019 to be the lead product manager on Facebook’s Civic Integrity team, Haugen dealt with issues related to democracy and misinformation, and later worked on counterespionage. In late 2020, she accused Facebook of misleading the public and investors on how it handles issues such as climate change, misinformation, and hate speech — prioritizing its own profits over public safety. Behind the scenes, Haugen gathered tens of thousands of pages of Facebook research to expose the harm she says the company was knowingly causing.