In her first public appearance since her Senate court testimony last month, Facebook Whistleblower Frances Haugen responded to Facebook’s name change, “there is a meta-problem…over and over again, Facebook chooses expansion over sticking the landing on what they have already done”. Haugen, like many other critics of Facebook, claims that this recent rebrand is an attempt to distract from the controversy faced by the company.

The former Facebook employee has set about to campaign for stricter tech regulations. After leaking internal company documents to The Wall Street Journal, which led to a series of articles called The Facebook Files, Ms. Haugen revealed her identify this last month for an episode of “60 Minutes” and testified before a Senate committee.

"During my time at Facebook, I came to realize a devastating truth: Almost no one outside of Facebook knows what happens inside Facebook," Haugen told Congress. "The company intentionally hides vital information from the public, from the U.S. government, and from governments around the world."

“Do you want censorship or free speech?” Haugen explains that Facebook continues to frame the concerns of public information and public safety as a binary issue. "Facebook chooses to mislead and misdirect. Facebook has not earned our blind faith" Haugen added during the senate sub-committee.

Some the leaked documents were studies that found that 13.5% of U.K. teen girls say their suicidal thoughts became more frequent after starting on Instagram, one of Facebook’s, now Meta’s social media accounts. Another study revealed that 17% of teen girls say their eating disorders got worse after using Instagram, and about 32% of teen girls said that when they felt bad about their bodies after using Instagram.

In her continued work to lobby for stricter oversight of the social media empire and more robust policies around the tech world, Haugen urges Facebook, now Meta to consider a different figurehead- one that would prioritize the companies needs and user's safety over their constant culture of monopoly.

The Facebook Whistleblower: A Meta Problem