Whistleblower Frances Haugen wasn't the only frustrated Facebook employee

Former Facebook employee Frances Haugen, the recently-unveiled whistleblower responsible for providing Congress as well as The Wall Street Journal with damning internal company documents, wasn't the only employee with qualms about the social network, The Washington Post reports.

In fact, she wasn't even the only one in her former division — the civic integrity subunit — to feel "undervalued or stymied," and perhaps leave the company as a result.

"We didn't join Facebook because we were big fans of the company," said one person familiar with the work of the integrity unit. "We joined because — rather than shouting about how something sucks you think you can make it better. But over time, you realize that the leadership is either indifferent or ignorant."

The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up

The person added that sometimes leadership just doesn't "prioritize the work"; other times, they don't understand it, and subsequently "under-resource it" until it disappears, per the Post.

Another former integrity employee, who hoped to help remedy hateful and problematic content that permeates Facebook's private groups, said they "repeatedly ran into barriers within" the company.

"They were just zero percent interested in stuff that I brought them," explained the former employee. "It was raised all the way up … and was consistently stopped."

Brian Waismeyer, who also worked in in the integrity unit, wrote in his March resignation post that those on his team "face particular burdens in their jobs." He said any valuable work is constantly weighed against possible PR and legal risks, as well as the company's bottom line, and can actually be "emotionally damaging" considering the continued exposure content as well as contact with those who either have been harmed or have harmed others on the platform.

Seems on par for a company that chooses to grow "at all costs." Read more at The Washington Post.