Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg Denies Allegations By Whistleblower Frances Haugen

On Wednesday, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg finally broke his silence after the former Facebook employee Frances Haugen testified before a U.S. Senate committee.

Haugen, known as the Facebook whistleblower, told Senators Tuesday that the social media platform consistently put profit over the safety of the users, letting its algorithms continue to harm individuals, especially child users.

After remaining silent for a day after her testimony, the Facebook CEO posted a lengthy statement on Facebook, rebutting the claims made by his former employee.

“At the heart of these accusations is this idea that we prioritize profit over safety and well-being,” Zuckerberg said in a statement. “That’s just not true.”

The Facebook CEO further denied Haugen’s accusation that the social media company deliberately pushed harmful content to people.

“The argument that we deliberately push content that makes people angry for profit is deeply illogical,” Zuckerberg noted. “We make money from ads, and advertisers consistently tell us they don’t want their ads next to harmful or angry content.”

“It’s disheartening to see that work taken out of context and used to construct a false narrative that we don’t care. If we attack organizations making an effort to study their impact on the world, we’re effectively sending the message that it’s safer not to look at all, in case you find something that could be held against you,” Zuckerberg added.

On Monday, Facebook and its other platforms – Instagram and Whatsapp – experienced an unprecedented outage globally for five hours, just a day before Haugen testified in front of the senators.

“To the huge community of people and businesses around the world who depend on us: we’re sorry. We’ve been working hard to restore access to our apps and services and are happy to report they are coming back online now. Thank you for bearing with us,” Facebook said in a statement after the service was restored.