Facebook whistleblower claims company ignores safety of non-US users

Frances Haugen claims Facebook disproportionately spends its safety budget in the United States, so other countries miss out

Facebook gives users outside the USA less protection from harmful content and does the "bare minimum" when it comes to regulating content on the platform, Facebook employee-turned-whistleblower Frances Haugen told Australian parliamentary members on Thursday morning.

Appearing before the Parliamentary Select Committee on Social Media and Online Safety, Haugen claimed the Meta-owned platform provides less help, safety and reporting of online abuse for users outside the United States - in order to save on costs.

"I'm sure on a per capita basis there is less help, less support, and less safety for Australians because Facebook knows it operates in the dark, " Haugen told ministers.

According to Haugen, Facebook disproportionately spends its safety budget in the USA, which means users in other parts of the world miss out.

Much like her earlier appearances before lawmakers in other countries, Haugen said Facebook takes minimum measures when it comes to deleting extreme or harmful posts, especially when such posts appear in languages that are not widely spoken in developed countries, as criticism is rarely raised.

Last year, Haugen told British lawmakers that Facebook's moderation systems are not efficient at catching content in languages other than English.

Speaking in Australia, she emphasised again that the core issue with the Facebook platform exists in its algorithms, which promote extreme content because it generates the most user engagement.

Haugen told the Select Committee that social media firms cannot longer be left to self-regulate when it comes to user safety.

"If we allow Facebook to write their own regulations...they will continue to mislead us and underinvest in the most basic safety systems," she said.

"They could make very simple changes and lose a fraction of profit to make things safer."

Haugen praised the Australian government efforts for taking on Big Tech, especially the news bargaining code, which supports public interest journalism.

However, she believes the government needs to take more steps, as British and European authorities have done, to try to regulate algorithms and design features that allow for the exploitation of personal data and spread of disinformation and hate content.

Haugen gained global attention last year after leaking Facebook's internal documents and giving evidence to a US congressional committee as a former company insider.

In October she appeared before a British parliamentary select committee, telling lawmakers that Facebook's internal culture prioritises profitability over its impact on the wider world. She said, "There is no will at the top to make sure these systems are run in an adequately safe way."

Last month, Rohingya refugees from Myanmar sued Meta over allegations that Facebook ignored inflammatory posts and hate speech against the ethnic group, leading to the genocide of its members in the south-east Asian country (formally called Burma).

Lawyers for victims of the 2017 massacres and displacements launched the coordinated legal action against the social media giant in the UK and the United States, seeking more than £150 billion in compensation in one of the largest group claims for victims of a crime against humanity.

In the US, the class action complaint alleged that Facebook was 'willing to trade the lives of the Rohingya people for better market penetration' in Myanmar.