Technology companies Facebook revealer Frances Haugen to be heard in the EU Parliament, live broadcast in progress

Brussels

In the European Parliament will visit today on Monday for a hearing with an American Frances Haugen, a former Facebook employee who has revealed the company’s internal practices.

Mr Haugen is being heard by several parliamentary committees at the same time. The hearing can be followed live from 5.45 pm.

Mr Haugen was asked to be heard by Parliament’s Committee on the Internal Market and Consumer Protection. This committee is currently examining the Commission’s draft law on digital services, which the Commission presented in December 2020.

The hearing began with questions put to Mr Haugen by the chairs of the various committees. Among other things, the MEPs wanted to know more about the operation of the algorithms used by Facebook. Haugen was also asked about his views on how Facebook and other large digital companies could be regulated.

Haugen was employed by Facebook from 2019 until last spring. He previously reported information about the company’s practices anonymously to The Wall Street Journal. Prior to leaving the company, he secretly copied tens of thousands of pages of internal company material and applied for a federal whistleblower protection program.

Parliamentary The pending digital services bill seeks to safeguard the rights of users of digital services. In addition, the bill seeks, among other things, to establish rules on how illegal content should be removed, how the service provider should monitor the content, and how targeted advertising should be treated.

The bill, also known as the DSA, applies to all digital services through which consumers have access to content, goods and services.

At the same time, the Commission adopted a bill on the digital market. This bill, abbreviated as DMA, provides for prohibited actions and imposes new operational obligations on large gatekeeper platforms such as Facebook.

Haugen was in a similar hearing in the U.S. Senate in early October.

Read more: Facebook spokesman Frances Haugen compared Facebook to tobacco companies at a Senate hearing and accused the platform of reinforcing hate speech

He compared Facebook to, among other things, tobacco waste, who knew about the dangers of their products but claimed otherwise in their advertising. According to him, the company always put profits ahead of user safety.

Of particular concern is the fact that, according to Haugen, Facebook is well aware of the effects of its content on children but does not care.

Facebook owner and CEO Mark Zuckerberg has denied Haugen ‘s claims on Facebook in his published article.