In 2021, Frances Haugen hit a breaking point in her job as a lead product manager on Facebook’s Civic Misinformation team. Haugen, an engineer and a data scientist, went public with what she had learned while working at Facebook (a.k.a. Meta, Inc.). She blew the whistle loud, telling her story in the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times Daily Podcast , on 60 minutes , and before Congress. She provided testimony and proof—with tens of thousands of internal documents—that showed Facebook knew its algorithms were contributing to the spread of ethnic violence and hatred as well as deepening harm to the self-esteem of its youngest users, especially girls. On Thursday, November 7, Haugen will be in Salt Lake City to speak about what she knew then and what parents and users of social media should know now. She is the keynote speaker at Salt Lake Community College’s Community Conversation event, which is part of the College’s Speaker Series. This event is free and open to the publ
What is it like to win an Emmy? SLCC student Valene Peratrovich has an idea. She is a co-producer of the film "Diverted," which recently won a National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences (NATAS) award, considered an equivalent to an Emmy for film students. Along with Valene, seven other SLCC students, co-producer McCaulee Blackburn and crew members Kolby Butts, Chris Kirkham, Cristian Martinez, Tristin McCarthy, Preston Buttars, and Chris McAllister—were thrilled to learn that their film took first place, beating competitors from schools like BYU. The film highlights the collective approach of Indigenous people to land stewardship and addressing environmental issues. This approach emphasizes the interconnectedness of all natural things. For Valene, honoring the Lake and advocating for its spirit were her primary motivations for working on the project. She hopes the film will help to gather enough support to have the Lake officially recognized as an entity with rights, a