Facebook whistleblower Frances Haugen to brief Australian MPs

The Facebook whistleblower who shocked the US with accusations the social media giant is knowingly harming the mental health of teens will address Australian MPs next week.

Former Facebook employee and whistleblower Frances Haugen testifies before a US Senate Committee. Picture: AFP

The Facebook whistleblower who shocked the US with accusations the social media giant is knowingly harming the mental health of teenagers will address Australian MPs next week.

Frances Haugen, a former Facebook employee, made world headlines last month after she leaked internal documents showing the social network’s algorithms had spurred on political misinformation – including among the pro-Donald Trump ­rioters who stormed the US Capitol last January – and contributed to mental health problems among teenage girls.

Ms Haugen will now make her pleas for world leaders to intervene against Facebook directly to federal MPs in an online event organised by Liberal Queenslander Julian Simmonds.

“As a father of two young children, I am particularly concerned about the predatory way these companies target vulnerable children and teens, with content they know can be damaging and platforms they know affect their mental health,” Mr Simmonds said.

“It’s time social media companies take responsibility for the way in which their platforms host and promote this material.”

Mr Simmonds – the chairman of parliament’s joint committee on law enforcement – will invite MPs across the political spectrum to a briefing with Ms Haugen to be held next Thursday.

The documents gathered by Ms Haugen, which provided the foundation for The Wall Street Journal’s Facebook Files series, show how the company’s moderation rules favour elites; how its algorithms foster discord; and how drug cartels and human traffickers use its services openly.

Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg has slammed Ms Haugen’s claims the company put profits before its responsibilities to mental health, but the leaked documents showing the harm done to teens did halt the launch of a children’s version of Instagram, which is owned by Facebook.

“We care deeply about issues like safety, wellbeing and mental health … At the most basic level, I think most of us just don’t recognise the false picture of the company that is being painted,” he said last week to Facebook staff.

Mr Simmonds’ briefing for MPs from the Facebook whistleblower has been arranged in conjunction with Reset Australia, the local arm of a global initiative to tackle misinformation online.

Reset Australia chief executive Rys Farthing said Ms Haugen’s revelations showed self-regulation was no longer an option for the tech titans.

“Whether it’s allowing advertisers to target vulnerable teens when they’re feeling low, tricking them with deceptive terms and conditions, or creating algorithms deliberately designed to keep them hooked on harmful content, their platforms just create risks for kids,” Dr Farthing said.

Scott Morrison last week flagged recognising tech titans as publishers if they do not start handing over the identity of anonymous online trolls, opening up the likes of Facebook and Twitter to costly defamation action.

The Prime Minister has taken a hardline stance against social media giants, including leading a global push to restrict the sharing of violence and extremist propaganda online sparked by the 2019 Christchurch massacre.

Josh Frydenberg last year introduced a world-first media bargaining code to ensure media companies received fairer payment for the sharing of their content on major websites.