Facebook Inc. is on a hot seat as another whistleblower has come forward to say she is willing to testify before Congress.
Sophie Zhang, who said she felt like she had “blood on her hands” after working at Facebook, is willing to testify before Congress about her former employer. She said she had also passed on documentation about the company to a US law enforcement agency.
Zhang, who worked as a data scientist at the tech giant for nearly three years, wrote a lengthy memo on being fired by Facebook last year, explaining that she believed the company was dealing with hate and misinformation. Not doing enough for – especially in smaller and developing countries. Zhang said the company told him he was fired due to performance issues.
Memo was first reported last year by Buzzfeed News and later formed the basis of a series of reports by The Guardian newspaper.
According to CNN, Zhang who revealed this at her home in the Bay Area on Sunday, said she was encouraged that there appeared to be bipartisan support for action related to the safety of children online following testimony from Facebook whistleblower Frances Hogen at a Senate subcommittee last week.
Zhang said she had informed officials about Facebook. “I have provided detailed documentation regarding potential criminal violations to a US law enforcement agency. My understanding is that the investigation is still ongoing,” she tweeted on Sunday.
When asked by CNN what information She gave or to which agency, she declined to share. An FBI spokesman declined to comment Monday, saying, “The FBI generally does not confirm, deny or otherwise comment on information or suggestions it receives from the public.”
Central to Zhang’s allegation about Facebook is that it is not doing enough to deal with abuse of its platform in countries outside the United States. Nearly 90% of Facebook’s monthly active users are outside the US and Canada, according to Most Recent Quarterly Filings.
A Facebook spokesperson on Monday hit back at that allegation, saying the company has invested billions in security and security in recent years.
“We have also removed more than 150 networks seeking to manipulate public debate since 2017, and they originated in more than 50 countries, most of which come from the US or are concentrated outside. From our track record shows that we crack down on abuse abroad with the same intensity that we apply in the US,” the spokesperson said.
