In September 2021, The Wall Street Journal began publishing reporting based on internal Facebook documents supplied by former employee Frances Haugen, who had worked on election-integrity issues from June 2019 until May 2021. The documents showed that Facebook’s own research found Instagram worsened body-image problems for about one in three teenage girls, while 14% of U.S. teenage boys surveyed in 2019 reported negative social comparison. Internal studies also documented the spread of misinformation, hate speech, self-harm and anorexia content, and violence-related material in countries where Facebook lacked sufficient language and moderation capacity. A 2019 test account in India was reportedly fed pornography, graphic content, hate speech and misinformation within three weeks.
The leak also detailed business decisions that prioritized engagement and political access over consistent enforcement. Facebook’s 2018 “Meaningful Social Interactions” News Feed changes increased the reach of reshared and anger-provoking material; angry reactions had previously been weighted five times more heavily than likes until the company reduced their value in September 2019. Its XCheck program exempted high-profile accounts from ordinary rules and covered at least 5.8 million users in 2020, according to internal documents. Haugen publicly identified herself on October 3, 2021, testified before the U.S. Senate, and backed securities-fraud complaints filed with the SEC by Whistleblower Aid. The disclosures triggered congressional and regulatory scrutiny, while Meta executives and lobbyists disputed the reporting and sought to divide lawmakers over proposed regulation.
