When Frances Haugen, a former Facebook employee who has turned whistleblower, presented a disturbing picture of the social-media giant in her testimony before the U.S. Congress in October, it united both the Republicans and Democrats. They vowed to take legislative action against Facebook.

Haugen alleged before Congress that Facebook put "astronomical profits before people." Haugen said that she wanted Facebook to admit its mistakes and take corrective measures, and she wanted Congress to bring regulation to rein Big Tech. (https://europeansting.com/2021/11/09/frances-haugen-to-meps-eu-digital-rules-can-be-a-game-changer-for-the-world/)

Haugen is now on the other side of the Atlantic arguing her case. Appearing before the European Union (EU) lawmakers Haugen has urged them to seize a "once-in-a-generation opportunity" and bring Facebook under control.

The meeting with Haugen comes when the EU parliament is considering the Digital Services Act (DSA) that would have rules to control the social media companies like Facebook. "Facebook has shown that they will lie with data," she told the European Parliament. "I encourage you to put in the DSA; if Facebook gives you data they should have to show you how they got it… It's really, really important that they should have to disclose the process, the queries, the notebooks they used to pull this data because you can't trust anything they give you unless you can confirm that." (https://techcrunch.com/2021/11/08/facebook-whistleblower-frances-haugen-european-parliament/)

Haugen believes that the EU is in a far better position to implement the law to control Facebook than the U.S. For instance, she told members that she "strongly believe[s] that Europe has a critical role to play in regulating these platforms because you are a vibrant, linguistically diverse democracy".

While Haugen has said that the DSA had the potential to be a "global gold standard" and inspire other countries to "pursue new rules that would safeguard our democracies," she has shown more faith in the European parliamentarians than the U.S. Congress members.

Read more:

What Haugen told the EU lawmakers:
https://www.euronews.com/2021/11/08/frances-haugen-facebook-whistleblower-in-brussels-to-speak-on-impact-of-tech-giants

5 takeaways from Facebook whistleblower's EU Parliament testimony:
https://www.euronews.com/2021/11/08/frances-haugen-facebook-whistleblower-in-brussels-to-speak-on-impact-of-tech-giants