Facebook whistleblower Frances Haugen is launching a nonprofit organization. That will seek solutions to harms created by social media, she said.
The former product manager at Facebook, since renamed Meta Platforms (META.O), made headlines last year after coming out as the source of thousands of leaked internal documents, which she said detailed the social media company’s failures to protect teen girls on Instagram and clamp down on vaccine misinformation.
Facebook has consistently said it disagrees with Haugen’s characterization.
Her nonprofit, Beyond the Screen, will create an open database to document ways that Big Tech companies are failing their “ethical obligations to society” and outline possible solutions, according to a press release.
It will partner with Project Liberty, an organization working to build a new operating protocol for social networking, and Common Sense Media, which advocates for safe media content for kids.
Meta Platforms, Inc., doing business as Meta and formerly named Facebook, Inc., and TheFacebook, Inc., is an American multinational technology conglomerate based in Menlo Park, California. The company owns Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp, among other products and services.
Meta is one of the world’s most valuable companies. It is considered one of the Big Five American information technology companies, alongside Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, and Microsoft.
Meta’s products and services include Facebook, Messenger, Facebook Watch, and Meta Portal. It has also acquired Oculus, Giphy, Mapillary, Kustomer, Presize and has a 9.99% stake in Jio Platforms. In 2021, the company generated 97.5% of its revenue from the sale of advertising.
In October 2021, the parent company changed its name from Facebook, Inc., to Meta Platforms, Inc. Its purpose was to “reflect its focus on building the metaverse”. According to Meta, the “metaverse” refers to the integrated environment that links all of the company’s products and services.
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