BY ANY MEASURE, Facebook is a picture of success. From small beginnings in 2004, it has grown into a company with a market capitalization of around $900bn. There are nearly 2.9 billion users worldwide, with an estimated 70 percent of all Americans having an account. On top of this, you can add a billion Instagram accounts. Success inevitably brings detractors, but Facebook is under fire, and its ex-employees are providing some of the best ammunition.
A Facebook data engineer, and whistle-blower, Frances Haugen, leaked thousands of internal documents that highlight the problems and went on to testify to the US Congress. “The thing I saw at Facebook over and over again were conflicts of interest between what was good for the public and what was good for Facebook,” said Haugen. “Facebook, over and over again, chose to optimize for its own interests, like making more money”.