History Will Lose, We Will all Lose, If the Story of How We Found Ourselves Here Doesn’t Come Out

 

A Conversation with Facebook Whistleblower Frances Haugen, who is the keynote at SLCC’s Speaker Series on Nov. 7.

 

Frances Haugen hit a breaking point where she could no longer abide the “madness.” In 2021, she left her job as a lead product manager on Facebook’s Civic Misinformation team, disillusioned by the company’s practices. Then Haugen, as product manager and a data scientist, went public with what she had learned while working at Facebook. 

 

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. Haugen provided testimony and proof—with tens of thousands of pages of internal documents—that showed Facebook knew its algorithms were contributing to political polarization, ethnic violence, and societal hatred. These same algorithms damaged self-esteem and confidence in young users, particularly girls.

 

Facebook, now known as “Meta”, following its concerted attempt to rebrand and avoid accountability in the wake of Haugen’s disclosures, is a giant in the social media world. It owns Instagram and WhatsApp. As of 2025, at least 66% of internet users worldwide (3.29 billion people) used at least one of these platforms. 

 

Haugen will be speaking in Salt Lake City at SLCC’s Speaker Series, Community Conversations, on November 7. (Reserve free tickets here). She and a panel of local experts will discuss social media’s impact on teen mental health and how to protect our children. 

 

This conversation is especially relevant in Utah. The state is a leader in social media regulation, having passed legislation limiting social media access for children. Additionally, the Jordan School District is suing social media companies to recoup mental health intervention costs. Utah schools are also at the forefront of banning cell phones during the school day.

 

Below are excerpts from a conversation with Haugen, who talks about what she learns from talking to middle schoolers, AI, and her ties to Utah, among other topics. 

 

What was the turning point for you at Facebook? 

There were a number of inflection points where I could not help but think that “this is madness”. Repeatedly witnessing harmful practices convinced me that only public pressure could force Facebook to change. 

 

One such moment was the dismantling of the Civic Integrity Group, formed to ensure that Facebook was a positive force in society. Founded in the wake of Facebook being blindsided by the Macedonian trolls and the Russians in 2016 and then further developed in the wake of the genocide in Myanmar and the United Nations’ 250-page report on how Facebook’s negligence directly contributed to the tragedy that unfolded. 

 

This team represented the genuine struggle to combat these harmful effects. And so, when Facebook dissolved the group less than 30 days after the 2020 elections, was the moment when I thought, “If this information does not leave the company, it will evaporate. History will lose, we will all lose, if the story of how we found ourselves here doesn’t come out.”

 

When did the harm Facebook was causing kids come to light for you? 

Initially, my focus was on ethnic violence being perpetrated in the world’s vulnerable regions due to my role at Facebook. However, before leaving, I collaborated with Jeff Horwitz, the journalist I worked with from Wall Street, to document whether Facebook was knowingly harming children.  

 

What we found was shocking. It’s easy to wonder why no one intervened, to ask, “How was it possible no one did anything?” But most Facebook and Instagram product developers are young–they haven’t personally experienced the long-term consequences of their work.

 

You mentioned you love talking to middle schoolers when you now travel, why?

I love talking to them about their online experiences, even though it makes me feel old. I’m regularly floored by the answers they give me. The information I’m getting from them is more insightful and current than basically anything else I’m reading. 

 

I think a lot of people don't really appreciate that when we ask ourselves, “how bad is social media, really?” We’re usually looking at the outcome data for 16-year-olds whose initial forays into the social media landscape dated back to when they were 12 or 13. Now when we look at 12- and 13-year-olds, they largely come online when they were like eight and nine. Even as far back as 2021, 30% of 7 to 9 year olds were on social media.

 

This kind of slow-moving train wreck will have a significant impact as these kids get older—it's going to have a distinctly different outcome profile than anything we’re seeing today. 

 

I think we're going to look back in five years and wonder why we waited so long to act. How much longer can we afford to wait before addressing the damage unfolding before us?

 

Is this your first time to Utah?

I've been to Utah skiing a couple of times and I’ve visited Temple Square with my parents when driving cross country. But my closest connection to Salt Lake City is from a big bronze statue located where I grew up in Iowa City, Iowa that I used to bike past regularly. It is a statue of a woman with a hand cart and her children who are about to leave for Utah because that’s where the train across America used to end…People think the United States is free of the dangers of violence between Americans, but the story of that [Mormon pioneer] migration shows that we have to constantly be aware, because it can happen here too, and it can happen fast.

 

Should AI be part of this conversation?

Absolutely, we’re already seeing its impact. Kids who converse with chatbots on the leading site, character.AI, talk to these avatars for 2-hours a day on average. Recently, The New York times ran a story on a 14-year old who committed suicide as a result of a relationship with one of these character chatbots. 

 

We have to stay vigilant with new technologies like this. We saw kids willingly transition away from hanging out in person to hanging out on social media because it was easier to do and far more convenient. Will the next wave be children connecting with AIs instead of other children because talking to AIs is far easier and more convenient?

 

From one of your interviews you mentioned that it is easier to inspire people to anger than any other emotion—social media plays upon this. What emotion does it play on when you’re a tween or teen girl? 

 

This is one of these issues where parents really need to understand how vulnerable their kids are, because as soon as kids go online, they start getting targeted with ads that are intended to be “relevant” to them, but relevance in this context really only revolves around who stands to make the most money off your children. 

 

One common emotion that teens go through as they reach puberty is discomfort with their changing bodies, which advertisers exploitatively target with products like diet lollipops so as to maximize the amount of money generated off these feelings… 

 

One of the things that I think has been a new trend in the last few years is the level of makeup that middle school girls wear. I go into schools—it could be in the US, Australia, or Canada—and it's like all the girls have turned on a real-life Instagram filter. I want to be clear, my criticism is not that the girls are wearing makeup, but it makes me sad to see the level of polish they feel is required to be “acceptable.” Imagine what it’s like to live under that much pressure.

 

I think these kinds of patterns are partially driven by social media algorithms, which can make kids feel inadequate, make them feel less than. To safely use social media, you have to really understand that what you see is only the “highlight reel” of other people’s lives—even adults struggle to do that. As a result, I think teens shouldn’t be on social media until they are at least 14, if not 16. 

 

Another area that's quite dangerous is playing off teens’ strong need to be accepted, making it so they are easily catfished and tricked. [Catfished is when someone creates a fake online identity to trick you into believing you're in a real online friendship or romance with them.]

 

Oftentimes, these children are blackmailed after they open themselves up to these strangers, leading to severely tragic outcomes. Even in cases where extreme outcomes are avoided, the abuse and exploitation of deep-seated insecurities and shortcomings can cause deep and lasting damage to children and their families. 

 

Teens want to believe that someone really finds them desirable, which isn’t unreasonable. However, if the platforms fail to adequately combat predators’ intent on preying on our children, leaving children alone in these spaces directly exposes them to significant harm.

 

Community Conversations is free and open to the public; however tickets must be reserved in advance at The Grand Theatre website.