© 2026 ABC News

\"They know that children bring their parents online -- so they understand the value of younger users for the long-term success of Facebook,\" she added.

With several comparisons to the tobacco industry, a majority of Haugen's testimony focused on harmful consequences once she said children get addicted to Facebook's platforms.

Notably, around 2019, Facebook started using a revamped algorithm called \"downstream MSI,\" which she said made a post more likely to appear in a user's News Feed if the algorithm calculated people were likely to share or comment on it as it passed down the chain of reshares.

\"PHOTO:
Jabin Botsford/Reuters
PHOTO: Former Facebook employee and whistleblower Frances Haugen testifies during a Senate Committee on Capitol Hill, in Washington, Oct. 5, 2021.
>

This method has led some people, including children, to content promoting eating disorders, misinformation, and hate-targeted posts, according to Haugen and what she said was in internal company documents she's submitted to the committee after leaking them to numerous media outlets.

\"Facebook knows its engagement ranking on Instagram can lead children from very innocuous topics like healthy recipes [...] to anorexic content over a very short period of time,\" Haugen alleged. \"Facebook knows they are leading young users to anorexia content.\"

\"Facebook knows that they are leading young users to anorexia content,\" whistleblower Frances Haugen testifies before a Senate committee. https://t.co/QsLYWtwLuk pic.twitter.com/WRVdq4UwGt

— ABC News (@ABC) October 5, 2021

Haugen claimed children are a targeted demographic for Facebook, referencing the company's recent project \"Instagram Kids.\" The company paused the project after it came under public scrutiny.

\"I would be sincerely surprised if they do not continue working on Instagram kids,\" Haugen speculated, adding Facebook intends \" to make sure that the next generation is just as engaged with Instagram as the current one, and the way they'll do that, making sure children establish habits before they have good self-regulation.\"

Whistleblower: 'Buck stops with Mark'

Haugen detailed numerous incidents in which she said executives at Facebook, including CEO Mark Zuckerberg, were made directly aware of their platforms' potentially negative influence on the mental health of children.

Zuckerberg and other executives were at one point presented with \"Project Daisy,\" a strategy that removed the number of likes from public Instagram posts. Studies proved the project was not effective, yet Zuckerberg and others went forward to appease regulators and journalists, according to Haugen.

\"PHOTO:
Drew Angerer/AFP via Getty Images
PHOTO: Sen. Marsha Blackburn and Sen. Richard Blumenthal speak to former Facebook data scientist Frances Haugen, center, during a hearing on Capitol Hill, Oct. 5, 2021, in Washington.
>

\"It would get us positive points from the public,\" Haugen recalled. \"That kind of duplicity is why we need to have more transparency and why, if we want to have a system that is coherent with democracy, we must have public oversight from Congress.\"

Zuckerberg, she said, was apparently also presented with options to remove the MSI algorithm in the case of Myanmar, a country where Facebook has been allegedly used to incite violence and spread hate speech.

\"Mark was presented with these options and chose to not remove downstream MSI in April of 2020,\" Haugen told the subcommittee.

\"PHOTO:
Jabin Botsford/Reuters
PHOTO: Former Facebook employee and whistleblower Frances Haugen testifies during a Senate Committee on Capitol Hill, in Washington, Oct. 5, 2021.
>

Asked why Facebook wouldn't get rid of downstream MSI when data showed the system expanded hate speech, misinformation and violence-inciting content, Haugen claimed that employee bonuses are still currently tied to the system.

Lena Pietsch, director of policy communications at Facebook, released a statement following whistleblower Frances Haugen's testimony attempting to discredit her knowledge of the company, while calling for new internet regulations.

\"It's time to begin to create standard rules for the internet,\" Pietsch said in a statement. \"It's been 25 years since the rules for the internet have been updated, and instead of expecting the industry to make societal decisions that belong to legislators, it is time for Congress to act.\"

Lawmakers on the panel from both parties, operating in a normally divided Washington, were united in calling for Zuckerberg and other Facebook officials to testify before Congress as Haugen had. Zuckerburg has remained silent on Haugen's allegations for days, and multiple senators noted the billionaire's recent social media posts of him put sailing with his wife.

Lawmakers signal more hearings, oversight to come

Haugen, while outlining what she said were Facebook's flaws, offered up several solutions. She said Facebook could be forced to do things such as forcing a user to click on a link before sharing it, which platforms like Twitter have found that significantly reduced misinformation, she said.

She also called for oversight of advertising when it comes to children -- a proposal senators appeared on board with exploring as they pursue possibly regulating Facebook.

Facebook whistleblower Frances Haugen testifies before Congress: \"We can have social media we enjoy, that connects us, without tearing apart our democracy, putting our children in danger, and sowing ethnic violence around the word. We can do better.\" https://t.co/EjTmtwwkGx pic.twitter.com/0MWyTSJUG6

— ABC News Politics (@ABCPolitics) October 5, 2021

\"I strongly encourage banning targeted advertisements to children,\" said Haugen. \"And we need to have oversight in terms of [how] the algorithms will likely still learn the interests of kids and match ads to those kids.\"

\"Facebook today [makes] approximately $40 billion a year in profit,\" she said at another point. \"A lot of the changes that I'm talking about are not going to make Facebook an unprofitable company -- it just won't be a ludicrously profitable company like it is today.\"

After Haugen raised concerns around Facebook's resourcing of counterterrorism and teams intended to counter foreign influence -- signaling she was speaking with another congressional committee on that matter -- lawmakers on the subcommittee opened the door to holding another hearing.

\"PHOTO:
Drew Angerer/AFP via Getty Images
PHOTO: Sen. Roger Wicker and Sen. Marsha Blackburn talk before former Facebook employee Frances Haugen testifies at a Senate Committee on Capitol Hill, Oct. 5, 2021, in Washington, DC.
>

\"I believe Facebook's consistent understaffing of the counterespionage, information operations and counterterrorism teams is a national security issue, and I'm speaking to other parts of Congress about that,\" Haugen said.

Sen. Dan, Sullivan, R-Alaska, followed up, \"So, you're saying in essence that the platform whether Facebook knows it or not, is being utilized by some of our adversaries in a way that helps push and promote their interests at the expense of America's?\"

\"Yes,\" she replied. \"Facebook is very aware that this is happening on the platform, and I believe the fact that Congress doesn't get a report of exactly how many people are working on these things internally is unacceptable because you have a right to keep the American people safe.\"

ABC News' Zunaira Zaki, Mary Kathryn Burke and Libby Cathey contributed to this report.

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