By Sheila Dang
(Reuters) – A former Facebook Inc employee revealed herself on Sunday as the whistleblower who leaked a trove of internal company research that served as the basis of a Wall Street Journal investigative series.
The leak led to a Senate hearing and a new wave of criticism over the negative impact of the social media giant’s apps.
Frances Haugen appeared on Sunday on the television program “60 Minutes.” She will testify before a Senate subcommittee on Tuesday in a hearing titled “Protecting Kids Online,” about the company’s research into Instagram’s effect on the mental health of young users.
Last week, a Facebook executive testified to U.S. senators and disputed the Journal’s characterization of the research, pointing out other findings that she said showed the app’s positive impact on teens.
Haugen was a product manager at Facebook for more than two years, according to her LinkedIn profile. She also worked as a product manager at Google, Pinterest and Yelp.
Haugen said she’d seen problems at other social media companies, but “it was substantially worse at Facebook than anything I’d seen before.”
(Reporting by Sheila Dang in Dallas; Editing by Muralikumar Anantharaman and Aurora Ellis)
