Beautiful Virgin Islands

Thursday, Oct 30, 2025

Frances Haugen says Facebook is 'making hate worse'

Frances Haugen says Facebook is 'making hate worse'

Whistleblower Frances Haugen has told MPs Facebook is "unquestionably making hate worse", as they consider what new rules to impose on big social networks.

Ms Haugen was talking to the Online Safety Bill committee in London.

She said Facebook safety teams were under-resourced, and "Facebook has been unwilling to accept even little slivers of profit being sacrificed for safety".

And she warned that Instagram was "more dangerous than other forms of social media".

While other social networks were about performance, play, or an exchange of ideas, "Instagram is about social comparison and about bodies... about people's lifestyles, and that's what ends up being worse for kids", she told a joint committee of MPs and Lords.

She said Facebook's own research described one problem as "an addict's narrative" - where children are unhappy, can't control their use of the app, but feel like they cannot stop using it.

"I am deeply worried that it may not be possible to make Instagram safe for a 14-year-old, and I sincerely doubt that it is possible to make it safe for a 10-year-old," she said.

The committee is fine-tuning a proposed law that will place new duties on large social networks and subject them to checks by the media regulator Ofcom.

Asked if the law was "keeping Mark Zuckerberg awake at night", Ms Haugen said she was "incredibly proud of the UK for taking such a world-leading stance".

"The UK has a tradition of leading policy in ways that are followed around the world.

"I can't imagine Mark isn't paying attention to what you're doing."

British English problem


Ms Haugen also warned that Facebook was unable to police content in multiple languages around the world - something which should worry UK officials, she said.

"UK English is sufficiently different that I would be unsurprised if the safety systems that they developed primarily for American English were actually under-enforcing in the UK," she said.

And she said that dangerous misinformation in other languages affects people in Britain.

"Those people are also living in the UK, and being fed misinformation that is dangerous, that radicalises people," she warned.

Ms Haugen also urged the committee to include paid-for advertising in its new rules, saying the current system was "literally subsidising hate on these platforms" because of their algorithmic ranking.

"It is substantially cheaper to run an angry hateful divisive ad than it is to run a compassionate, empathetic ad," she said.

And she also urged MPs to require a breakdown of who is harmed by content, rather than an average figure - suggesting Facebook is "very good at dancing with data", but pushes people towards "extreme content".

Ms Haugen appeared at a joint committee of MPs and Lords

"The median experience on Facebook is a pretty good experience," she said.

"The real danger is that 20% of the population has a horrible experience or an experience that is dangerous," she said.

"Accept under-resourcing"


She warned that employees were unable to report internal concerns at Facebook - something she called a "huge weak spot".

"When I worked on counter-espionage, I saw things where I was concerned about national security, and I had no idea how to escalate those because I didn't have faith in my chain of command at that point," she told the committee.

And she warned: "We were told to accept under-resourcing."

Similar problems plague Facebook's Oversight Board, which can overturn the company's decisions on content, she said. She repeated her claim that Facebook has repeatedly lied to its own watchdog, and said this is a "defining moment" for the Oversight Board to "step up".

"I don't know what the purpose of the Oversight Board is," she said.

It comes as several news outlets published fresh stories based on the thousands of leaked documents Ms Haugen took with her when she left Facebook.

Facebook has characterised previous reporting as misleading, and at one point referred to the leaked documents as "stolen".

"Contrary to what was discussed at the hearing, we've always had the commercial incentive to remove harmful content from our sites," a spokesperson said, after Ms Haugen finished giving evidence.

"People don't want to see it when they use our apps, and advertisers don't want their ads next to it. That's why we've invested $13bn (£9.4bn) and hired 40,000 people to do one job: keep people safe on our apps. "

The company said that over the last three quarters it has halved the amount of hate speech seen on Facebook, which it claims now accounts for only 0.05% of all content viewed.

"While we have rules against harmful content and publish regular transparency reports, we agree we need regulation for the whole industry so that businesses like ours aren't making these decisions on our own," the spokesperson said.

"The UK is one of the countries leading the way and we're pleased the Online Safety Bill is moving forward."


An avalanche of information emerged on Monday from leaked Facebook documents - and it was hard to keep up.

Allegations include that the social media giant is aware of its role in inciting violence all around the world, or causing harm to its users from US and UK to India and Ethiopia.

A common theme runs through each of the stories. They all suggest a tension between employees raising the alarm about their concerns and a corporate machine that does not appear to be using this to inform its policies.

Reporters and journalists have been highlighting many of these same concerns, especially for the past 18 months. I've investigated the human cost of online disinformation and abuse again and again and exposed the damage being done to real people offline using these sites.

But until these documents were released by Ms Haugen, it was very difficult to know how aware Facebook was of that damage.

These latest leaks reinforce the idea that it is conscious of it - although it refutes a number of the claims.

And it means pressure is mounting on policymakers around the world to do something about it.


Watch: Frances Haugen tells MPs that Facebook "unquestionably" makes hate worse

 Monika Bickert: "It's in our financial interest to make sure that people have a good experience on our site".


Newsletter

Related Articles

Beautiful Virgin Islands
0:00
0:00
Close
UK and Vietnam Sign Landmark Migration Deal to Fast-Track Returns of Irregular Arrivals
UK Drug-Pricing Overhaul Essential for Life-Sciences Ambition, Says GSK Chief
Princesses Beatrice and Eugenie Temporarily Leave the UK Amid Their Parents’ Royal Fallout
UK Weighs Early End to Oil and Gas Windfall Tax as Reeves Seeks Investment Commitments
UK Retail Inflation Slows as Shop Prices Fall for First Time Since Spring
Next Raises Full-Year Profit Guidance After Strong Third-Quarter Performance
Reform UK’s Lee Anderson Admits to 'Gaming' Benefits System While Advocating Crackdown
United States and South Korea Conclude Major Trade Accord Worth $350 Billion
Hurricane Melissa Strikes Cuba After Devastating Jamaica With Record Winds
Vice President Vance to Headline Turning Point USA Campus Event at Ole Miss
U.S. Targets Maritime Narco-Routes While Border Pressure to Mexico Remains Limited
Bill Gates at 70: “I Have a Real Fear of Artificial Intelligence – and Also Regret”
Elon Musk Unveils Grokipedia: An AI-Driven Alternative to Wikipedia
Saudi Arabia Unveils Vision for First-Ever "Sky Stadium" Suspended Over Desert Floor
Amazon Announces 14 000 Corporate Job Cuts as AI Investment Accelerates
UK Shop Prices Fall for First Time Since March, Food Leads the Decline
London Stock Exchange Group ADR (LNSTY) Earns Zacks Rank #1 Upgrade on Rising Earnings Outlook
Soap legend Tony Adams, long-time star of Crossroads, dies at 84
Rachel Reeves Signals Tax Increases Ahead of November Budget Amid £20-50 Billion Fiscal Gap
NatWest Past Gains of 314% Spotlight Opportunity — But Some Key Risks Remain
UK Launches ‘Golden Age’ of Nuclear with £38 Billion Sizewell C Approval
UK Announces £1.08 Billion Budget for Offshore Wind Auction to Boost 2030 Capacity
UK Seeks Steel Alliance with EU and US to Counter China’s Over-Capacity
UK Struggles to Balance China as Both Strategic Threat and Valued Trading Partner
Argentina’s Markets Surge as Milei’s Party Secures Major Win
British Journalist Sami Hamdi Detained by U.S. Authorities After Visa Revocation Amid Israel-Gaza Commentary
King Charles Unveils UK’s First LGBT+ Armed Forces Memorial at National Memorial Arboretum
At ninety-two and re-elected: Paul Biya secures eighth term in Cameroon amid unrest
Racist Incidents Against UK Nurses Surge by 55%
UK Chancellor Rachel Reeves Cites Shared Concerns With Trump Administration as Foundation for Early US-UK Trade Deal
Essentra plc: A Closer Look at a UK ‘Penny Stock’ Opportunity Amid Market Weakness
U.S. and China Near Deal to Avert Rare-Earth Export Controls Ahead of Trump-Xi Summit
Justin time: Justin Herbert Shields Madison Beer with Impressive Reflex at Lakers Game
Russia’s President Putin Declares Burevestnik Nuclear Cruise Missile Ready for Deployment
Giuffre’s Memoir Alleges Maxwell Claimed Sexual Act with Clooney
House Republicans Move to Strip NYC Mayoral Front-Runner Zohran Mamdani of U.S. Citizenship
Record-High Spoiled Ballots Signal Voter Discontent in Ireland’s 2025 Presidential Election
Philippines’ Taal Volcano Erupts Overnight with 2.4 km Ash Plume
Albania’s Virtual AI 'Minister' Diella Set to 'Birth' Eighty-Three Digital Assistants for MPs
Tesla Unveils Vision for Optimus V3 as ‘Biggest Product of All Time’, Including Surgical Capabilities
Francis Ford Coppola Auctions Luxury Watches After Self-Financed Film Flop
Convicted Sex Offender Mistakenly Freed by UK Prison Service Arrested in London
United States and China Begin Constructive Trade Negotiations Ahead of Trump–Xi Summit
U.S. Treasury Sanctions Colombia’s President Gustavo Petro over Drug-Trafficking Allegations
Miss USA Crowns Nebraska’s Audrey Eckert Amid Leadership Overhaul
‘I Am Not Done’: Kamala Harris Signals Possible 2028 White House Run
NBA Faces Integrity Crisis After Mass Arrests in Gambling Scandal
Swift Heist at the Louvre Sees Eight French Crown Jewels Stolen in Under Seven Minutes
U.S. Halts Trade Talks with Canada After Ontario Ad Using Reagan Voice Triggers Diplomatic Fallout
Microsoft AI CEO: ‘We’re making an AI that you can trust your kids to use’ — but can Microsoft rebuild its own trust before fixing the industry’s?
×