Facebook Backs Down as App Instability Eve Whistleblower Testimony in Congress By Investing.com

Pur Direndra Tripathi

Investing.com – Shares on Facebook (NASDAQ:) fell 5.5% at around 2:40 p.m. (Brazilian time) Monday on the eve of Francis Hogan’s testimony to Congress over allegations of mismanagement at the company. The decline was also driven by global instability in the Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp apps.

Here, the social networking giant’s (SA:) BDRs are down 5%.

Haugen, whose material has been behind the string of condemnations published by the Wall Street Journal critical of the company over the past two weeks, made a new appearance on CBS for 60 Minutes over the weekend, repeating his main claim that the company prioritized profit throughout the week. The safety and health of its customers.

Haugen joined the social media giant in June 2019 and left the company in May this year, tired of trying to improve the company from within.

The former product manager was hired to help protect Facebook from electoral interference, but according to her, what she saw was the company’s lack of openness about the potential of its platforms in terms of harm and a reluctance to address the glitches.

The recent Wall Street Journal coverage, which was based on Haugen documents and interviews with current and former Facebook employees, said the company “is fully aware that the products and platforms for its business success routinely fail.”

According to Hoggin, Facebook also relaxed election-related safeguards too soon, a measure she said was a factor in the spread of misinformation, leading to the ill-fated seizure of the Capitol. One of those steps was to raise the live video limit.

According to internal documents, the company was aware that using Instagram leads to increased anxiety, mental health, body self-image and self-confidence in teenage girls.

Protests following the Wall Street Journal revelations forced Facebook last week to stop work on Instagram Kids, a version of the popular app that the company aims to target a younger audience.