An advocate for accountability and transparency in social media, in late 2020 Frances Haugen, having become increasingly alarmed by the choices Facebook was making prioritizing its own profits over public safety and putting people’s lives at risk, made the courageous decision to blow the whistle on the company for which she was working. She has since testified in front of the U.S. Congress, U.K. and E.U. Parliaments and others, engaging with lawmakers internationally on how to best address the negative externalities of social media platforms. She fundamentally believes the problems we face with social media are solvable, and is dedicated to uniting people around the world to bring about change.
Haugen holds a degree in electrical and computer engineering from Olin College and an MBA from Harvard University. She is a specialist in algorithmic product management, having worked on ranking algorithms at Google, Pinterest, Yelp and Facebook. She was recruited to Facebook to be the lead product manager on the Civic Misinformation team, which dealt with issues related to democracy and misinformation, and later also worked on counter-espionage.
