In what could spell fresh trouble for Facebook, a newwhistleblower has alleged that the social network puts profits before effortsto fight hate speech and misinformation on its platform.
A former member of Facebook's Integrity team has allegedthat "the company prizes growth and profits over combating hate speech,misinformation and other threats to the public", reports The WashingtonPost.
According to a copy of the affidavit obtained by ThePost, the allegations echoed many of those made by the first whistleblowerFrances Haugen.
"Haugen, like the new whistleblower, also madeallegations to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), which overseespublicly traded companies," the report said on Friday.
The new whistleblower has alleged in the complaint thatFacebook did not warn investors about illegal activity.
In a statement, Facebook spokesperson Erin McPike said:"This is beneath the Washington Post, which during the last five yearscompeted ferociously with the New York Times over the number of corroboratingsources its reporters could find for single anecdotes in deeply reported,intricate stories. It sets a dangerous precedent to hang an entire story on asingle source making a wide range of claims without any apparentcorroboration."
The whistleblower complaint also criticised the socialnetwork "for not being aggressive enough in addressing evidence that theplatform was being used by military officials in Myanmar to spread hate speechduring mass killings of the minority Rohingya ethnic group".
"I, working for Facebook, had been a party togenocide," the whistleblower wrote in the affidavit.
Earlier this month, Haugen, a former product manager inFacebook's civic integrity group, testified before the US Congress about atrove of internal documents she gave to The Wall Street Journal.
One of her main arguments was that Facebook's business ofselling ads based on engagement leads it to keep users on the service at allcosts, even when it knows that the content they are engaging with is harmful.
Senator Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), chair of the SenateCommerce Committee's subcommittee on consumer protection, has demanded thatFacebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg or Instagram chief Adam Mosseri should testifybefore the Senate to explain how the company plans to protect kids in light ofnew reports that platforms like Instagram can encourage harmful behaviour inteenagers.
Billionaire tech critic Pierre Omidyar who foundede-commerce platform eBay is reportedly financially supporting Facebookwhistleblower Haugen to take on the social media giant.