Facebook Whistleblower Talks Mental Health and Teens in SLCC's Speaker Series

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 public with reservations.

Haugen, along with a panel of local experts, will discuss social media’s impact on teen mental health. A relevant topic in Utah, which is one of the first states to pass legislation limiting social media access for children and where the Jordan School District is involved in a lawsuit against social media companies to recoup costs for mental health intervention. Increasingly, cell phones are being banned in Utah schools.

Panel of local experts:

Dr. Diane Liu, Pediatrician and Associate Professor of Pediatrics at the Spencer Fox Eccles School of Medicine.
Amiee Winder Newton, Senior Advisor to Gov. Cox and Director of the Utah Office of Families.
DaSheek Akwenye, Director, SLCC Center for Counseling and Health

Event Details:

When: Thursday, November 7, at 7 p.m.

Where: The Grand Theatre, Salt Lake Community College’s South City Campus (1575 South State Street).

Tickets: Free, however seating must be reserved at the Grand Theatre’s website.

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Press Release

Media Contact, Salt Lake Community College:

Peta Owens-Liston, peta.liston@slcc.edu, 801-957-5099

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