Facebook Orders Staff to Keep Documents from Whistleblowers
Following an extensive document leak, Facebook issued a legal hold notice to all personnel for documents.
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Francis Haugen: Facebook has long prioritized profit over the global impact
Facebook instructed its employees to keep internal documents and communications for legal purposes Tuesday, following governments and regulators launching investigations into its operations in the wake of a flood of revelations from whistleblower documents, according to the Guardian.
Simultaneously, a Facebook spokesperson confirmed that the company issued a legal hold notice to all personnel for documents, as reported by Reuters.
"Document preservation requests are part of the process of responding to legal inquiries," added the spokesperson.
The request applies to documents and communications dating back to 2016, The New York Times reported.
What do you need to know?
A Facebook whistleblower, Francis Haugen, expressed concerns about the company's numerous business operations, and she consequently testified before Congress.
"I believe in the potential of Facebook. We can have social media we enjoy, that connects us, without tearing apart our democracy, putting our children in danger, and sowing ethnic violence around the word. We can do better."
— CBS News (@CBSNews) October 5, 2021
-Facebook whistleblower testifies before Congress pic.twitter.com/hC7kNj4ys1
The documents revealed several explosive pieces of information about the company's growth strategies, including bids to market its products directly to children. Furthermore, the company's internal research deemed its Instagram platform harmful to the mental health of young girls.
According to Haugen, who has testified before US and British lawmakers, Facebook has long prioritized profit over global impact.
News reports have recently raised a wide range of questions about the company's operations, including “the impact of its apps on young people's mental health, the company’s knowledge about the aggressive spread of misinformation and hate speech on its platforms, and the measures it took to stop the proliferation of human trafficking operations on its apps.”
Facebook hasn't explicitly rejected any of the Journal's reporting, but it has called the characterizations "misleading" and has strongly resisted them.
