A former Fb employee reportedly informed US authorities Friday the platform has put earnings earlier than stopping problematic content material, weeks after one other whistleblower helped stoke the agency’s newest disaster with related claims. The unnamed new whistleblower filed a grievance with US monetary regulator Securities and Change Fee that would add to the corporate’s misery, mentioned a Washington Publish report.
Fb has confronted a storm of criticism over the previous month after former worker Frances Haugen leaked inside research displaying the corporate knew of potential hurt stoked by its websites, prompting US lawmakers’ to resume a push for regulation.
Within the SEC grievance, the brand new whistleblower recounts alleged statements from 2017, when the corporate was deciding deal with the controversy associated to Russia’s interference within the 2016 US presidential election.
“Will probably be a flash within the pan. Some legislators will get pissy. After which in a couple of weeks they’ll transfer onto one thing else. In the meantime we’re printing cash within the basement, and we’re fantastic,” Tucker Bounds, a member of Fb’s communications staff, was quoted within the grievance as saying, The Washington Publish reported.
The second whistleblower signed the grievance on October 13, per week after Haugen’s scathing testimony earlier than a Senate panel, based on the report.
Haugen informed lawmakers that Fb put earnings over security, which led her to leak reams of inside firm research that underpinned a damning Wall Road Journal collection.
The Washington Publish reported the brand new whistleblowers SEC submitting claims the social media big’s managers routinely undermined efforts to fight misinformation and different problematic content material for concern of angering then US president Donald Trump or for turning off the customers who’re key to earnings.
Erin McPike, a Fb spokeswoman, mentioned the article was “beneath the Washington Publish, which over the past 5 years would solely report tales after deep reporting with corroborating sources.”
Fb has confronted earlier firestorms of controversy, however that has not translated into substantial new US laws to control social media.
