Frances Haugen, a whistleblower who exposed Facebook and testified to lawmakers about the social network’s illegal data activities, is raising up to $5 million to launch a nonprofit that will train lawyers to fight Big Tech.
According to a report in Politico, Haugen wants to launch “Beyond the Screen,” a nonprofit that will also focus on getting investors to consider how socially responsible a tech company is before giving it money. money and to give regulators and researchers insight into how the platforms work.
“Before (my revelations), each of us could only see what was on our own screen. What changed with the revelations is that we now know what is happening beyond our own screens. changed the math on how we approach all of these businesses,” she said in the report.
The former Facebook employee, who has spent the past few months testifying before US, European and Australian authorities, secured seed funding from donors.
“For Haugen, one of the primary goals is to give lawyers willing to use social media a crash course in what they should look for when filing their lawsuits,” the report said.
The whistleblower aims to build a simulated social network, an artificial platform in which regulators, researchers and others can simulate potential scenarios.
Haugen testified last year before US and EU lawmakers after leaking a cache of internal Facebook reports.
Reports have revealed several alarming policy and moderation failures on Facebook, but lawmakers have focused more intently on documents regarding Instagram’s impacts on the mental health of young users.
These reports led the committee to hold additional hearings with representatives of other popular social platforms like Snapchat, TikTok and YouTube.
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(Only the title and image of this report may have been edited by Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
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