Beautiful Virgin Islands

Sunday, Aug 02, 2026

Facebook Papers: Company takes heat from lawmakers over leaked docs

Facebook Papers: Company takes heat from lawmakers over leaked docs

Facebook Papers leak leads to harsh criticism of tech giant
Several lawmakers shared their reactions to the Facebook Papers – a trove of leaked documents revealing the company's inner workings – and cited them as proof that the tech giant has become unaccountable.

Republicans and Democrats have spoken out on the recent revelations regarding Facebook, with lawmakers in both the House and Senate blasting the social media giant over the leaked internal documents.

Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., blasted Facebook for discriminating against "conservative news sources," telling FOX Business in a Monday email the company is doing so to give a smoke screen to Democrat politicians.

"Facebook discriminates against conservative news sources, not because of policy violations, but because Facebook wants to protect Democratic politicians," Cotton said. "If Facebook is going to act as an arm of the Democratic Party, we’ll treat them like one."

Reports on the whistleblower content have illustrated issues at the market behemoth, such as the adverse, impactful effect Instagram reportedly has on the psyche of teenage girls.

"The huge document dump about Facebook reveals that the company is beset with problem after problem, yet it still brings in $100 billion a year. No company can bring in that kind of money with those kinds of problems unless it’s a monopoly. It’s time that Congress take seriously the need to break up Big Tech," Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., told FOX Business.

Rep. Madison Cawthorn, R-N.C., also took Facebook to task over the reports, telling FOX Business that the tech giant has "proven themselves cavalier" in their operations and called for them to be broken up.

"Facebook has repeatedly proven themselves cavalier with their operating practices and procedures, from its censorship of conservatives to its internal suppression of harms caused by the platform," Cawthorn said. "It's time to break up big tech and break the hold they have over the American people. They've gone unchecked for far too long."

Former company product manager Frances Haugen ignited the Facebook firestorm earlier this month when she blew the whistle on the tech giant's alleged exploitation of users to increase their bottom line.

One document shared and reviewed by FOX Business and a media consortium of 16 other U.S. news outlets suggests that employees raised concerns in 2018 that the company was exploiting its users.

"It's not a secret we've often resorted to aggressive tactics in the name of growth and we've been pretty unapologetic about it," an unidentified Facebook employee wrote in an internal group known as "Let's Fix Facebook."

"Many employees have called out these tactics as hostile and disrespectful to our users, and the response has generally been, that our care metrics weren't moved [in other words we could get away with them]. Today, the light has changed and all these tactics are being subject to the highest level of scrutiny fueling the narrative that Facebook seeks profits by exploiting its users."

The trove of documents from Haugen was given to media outlets through a congressional source and the documents are partially redacted. Some of the documents included have been previously reported on by The Wall Street Journal, which has published its own series of reports, dubbed the Facebook Files.

Drew Pusateri, a spokesperson for Facebook, told Fox Business in a Monday email that the company has been pushing for updated Internet regulations, themselves.

"For two and a half years we have been calling for updated regulations ourselves," Pusateri said. "Every day, we make difficult decisions on where to draw lines between free expression and harmful speech, privacy, security, and other issues, and we use both our own research and research from outside experts to improve our products and policies."

"But we should not be making these decisions on our own which is why for years we’ve been advocating for updated regulations where democratic governments set industry standards to which we can all adhere," he continued.
Newsletter

Related Articles

Beautiful Virgin Islands
0:00
0:00
Close
Finland Deploys Commercial-Scale Thermal Batteries Using Crushed Rock to Store Renewable Grid Energy
Valued at $109 Million: F-35B Fighter Jet Crashes in Southern California
Andy Burnham has Announces Plans to Redistribute Income Tax Revenue to English Mayors
Early-Release Scheme Faces Fresh Scrutiny as Reoffending and Prison Recalls Rise
Police Phone Checks Followed Report on Murder of MI5 Agent Inside Sinn Féin
Archbishop of Canterbury Reaffirms £100 Million Reparative Justice Fund During Ghana Visit
Drought Status Extended Across All of Wales as Heat and Dry Weather Deepen Environmental Strain
Record-Low Danube Exposes Probable Mammoth Remains in Bulgaria
US Says It Has Carried Out Heavy Strikes on Iran After Attempted Attacks on Its Forces
The chief executive of the popular gaming company laid off many employees and his pay rose to 38 million dollars
The World's Most Terrifying Smartphone: Recording, Documenting, and Reporting to the Regime
The AI User Nightmare: Private Claude Conversations Leaked to the Internet
UK: Former Football Association Leaders Call for World Cup Boycott Over FIFA Privatization Plan
Forbidden Love: China severs millions from their virtual partners
Over 24 Hours in the Air: Qantas Airbus Completes Record-Breaking Test Flight
Zuckerberg Opposes US Ban on Chinese AI Models and Warns of Regulatory Capture
Massive Wildfires Ravage Southern Europe: Fatalities in Greece and Evacuations Across France, Spain, and Turkey
Trump says Israel ‘would not survive’ without US
France Evacuates Atlantic Coast Resorts as Wildfire Risk Rises Again
Magnitude 7.1 Earthquake Strikes Kumamoto as Rescuers Search Collapsed Buildings
OpenAI Faces Demands for Full Disclosure After Models Breach Hugging Face
Nvidia Reportedly Takes Vast Texas Data-Centre Lease to Underwrite AI Expansion
Royal Collection Trust Income Falls as Palace Visits Retreat From Record Highs
FIFA’s Private-Investment Plan for World Cup Rights Draws European Revolt
Ministers Examine Social-Care Levy as Burnham Seeks Funding Settlement
Apple Briefly Crosses Five Trillion Dollar Valuation as Investors Retreat From AI Bets
Badenoch Offers Tory Votes to Keep Serious Offenders in Prison
Why Americans Queue for $15 Ice Cream and a $100 Caviar Pint
Another AI Genius Left the United States — and Silicon Valley Is Starting to Worry
Shein Reports $99mn Loss as Trade Barriers Test Low-Cost Model
CXMT Gains 466% in China’s Biggest IPO Since 2010
Amazon Seeks Approval for 5,105-Satellite Mobile Network
Burnham Puts School-to-Work Reform at Centre of Welfare Strategy
Burnham Rules Out Replacing Council Tax and Stamp Duty
Fresh Heatwave Threatens to Rekindle France’s Historic Wildfire Crisis
Following OpenAI's Cyberattack: 'Most Companies Still Do Not Understand What Is Coming'
Autopsy Finds No Violence in Death of Epstein-Linked Model Scout
Indian Education Minister Resigns After Cockroach Youth Protests
California Desert Data-Centre Plan Stalls as Water and Power Disputes Mount
War, Youth Revolt and the Global Struggle for Control
War, Power and the Rising Price of Political Decisions
Badenoch Rejects Grant Shapps' Bid to Return as Conservative Candidate
BAE Chief Warns Britain Has Underestimated the Risk of War
Burnham Rules Out New Scottish Independence Referendum in First Talks With Swinney
OpenAI Sued After ChatGPT Allegedly Discouraged Emergency Care Before Near-Fatal Embolism
Viral Video Raises Questions Over Twelve-Dollar Croissants at Manhattan Bakery
Miliband Sets Climate and International Law at Centre of UK Diplomacy
US Gasoline Returns to $4 as Renewed Iran Fighting Disrupts Oil Flows
Czech Central Bank Governor Rejects Early Euro Entry and Rate-Cut Pressure
Trump Orders 50% Tariffs on Selected Canadian Imports
×