Facebook responds to whistleblower testimony by asking to be regulated

Embattled tech giant Facebook has issued a response following former employee and whistleblower Frances Haugen's damning testimony before a Senate subcommittee on Tuesday. Previously, Haugen leaked internal documents to both Congress and The Wall Street Journal, which then became the basis for the Facebook Files investigation published by the latter.

Haugen worked at the company "for less than two years, had no direct reports, never attended a decision-point meeting with C-level executives — and testified more than six times to not working on the subject matter in question," wrote Facebook's director of policy communications in a statement following the hearing.

And although the company does not agree with her "characterization of the many issues she testified about," Facebook agrees with Haugen on one thing — it's time for Congress "to begin to create standard rules for the internet."

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The brief statement did, however, receive some criticism for its attempt to discredit Haugen, with one person even calling the response "utterly misguided."

Talk about a rough couple of days.

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Brigid Kennedy

Brigid Kennedy worked at The Week from 2021 to 2023 as a staff writer, junior editor and then story editor, with an interest in U.S. politics, the economy and the music industry.