Skip to main content

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.

 

###

 

Press Release

Media Contact, Salt Lake Community College:

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

 

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

SLCC Automotive Repairs

Click to enlarge. Attention: SLCC Students, staff and faculty! Many SLCC automotive programs need vehicles to work on in these areas: 30 point inspections Oil changes Tire rotation Engine repair Brake systems repair Automatic and transmission repairs Air conditioning repair Electrical troubleshooting & repair Suspension & steering system repair Auto-body repair and painting (on a very limited basis) Please be advised that any repairs are done at the discretion of the instructors due to the subject areas they are teaching.  Because we are using your vehicles for training purposes, we offer members of the College discounts on parts and labor. Parts are at our cost plus 15% and the service fee is $20 per hour based on industry time standards (if the industry assigns an hour for a repair, that's all you're charged for, regardless of how much time it takes the student). We can also offer these services to non-college personnel on a limited basis with...

SLCC All Access

Did you know you can access SLCC lab software for free from your own computing device?   Come learn how SLCC is supporting BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) with All Access. The goal of All Access is to provide any time, any place, and any device access to college computing and lab software SLCC students, faculty and staff.  All Access works on almost any device from a PC or Mac, to tablets and smart phones.  With All Access you can use programs like Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Publisher, AutoCAD, MatLab, Mathematica, MyITLab, NetBeans, and online Library Databases.  We also provide you with online storage space so you can save your files in the cloud and have access to them wherever you are.  Anyone is welcome to this session where we will cover the basics of All Access, give you some tips and tricks for getting the most out the system, and we’ll also have some people there to help get your computer set up.  When and where: ...

SLCC Alumnus and U.S. Diplomat to Speak at 2025 Commencement

Salt Lake Community College’s 2025 Commencement speaker Branigan Knowlton will share his perspectives drawn from a 12-year career as a Foreign Service Officer with the U.S. Department of State. In serving his country, Knowlton has honed his foreign relations and diplomacy skills in Hong Kong, Mexico, Colombia and Italy. Knowlton is also a proud Salt Lake Community College (SLCC) alumnus (2002).     Knowlton currently serves at the U.S. Embassy in Rome. Before reporting to the embassy, he was detailed to the Italian Ministry of Infrastructure and Transport as part of the Transatlantic Diplomatic Fellowship program. In Bogotá, Knowlton worked for the Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement, and in Hermosillo, Mexico, he worked for the Bureau of Consular Affairs. His first assignment abroad was in Hong Kong, where he worked for the Bureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs.     "I've actively sought opportunities that push me into the unfamiliar, even when ...