Investing.com – Facebook stock (NASDAQ:FB) traded 0.5% lower in Monday’s premarket as a series of reports in The Washington Post over last week buttressed whistleblower Frances Haugen's claims that the social media giant puts profit before the safety of its users.
A new anonymous whistleblower, quoted by the Post, has cited examples showing Facebook officials’ casual approach towards probes by Congress.
According to an affidavit by the new whistleblower, in 2017 following the heat generated by accusations of Russian interference in the previous year’s Presidential elections, Facebook communications official Tucker Bounds allegedly said, “It will be a flash in the pan. Some legislators will get pissy. And then in a few weeks they will move onto something else. Meanwhile we are printing money in the basement, and we are fine.”
Other reports in the Post suggested founder Mark Zuckerberg having a say in every major decision at the company.
Similarly, according to another WaPo report today, at the time of Vietnam’s Communist Party congress in January, Facebook significantly enhanced censorship of “anti-state” posts. The report says Zuckerberg personally decided that Facebook would comply with Hanoi’s demands.
In a statement to the Post, the company sought to justify the censorship in Vietnam “to ensure our services remain available for millions of people who rely on them every day.”
That was part of a broader strategy of seeking to become the dominant source of news in developing countries through Facebook's 'Internet.org' campaign, which it originally styled as serving the under-connected in the digital age.
The latest accusations add to troubles at Facebook that’s grappling with reports of audience switching off the platform and Apple’s privacy changes hurting its advertising revenue. While those are still business issues, the company has also been accused of ignoring its own internal research when it suggested its Instagram platform is toxic for girls.