'Facebook weakens our democracy, harms kids': Top quotes from whistleblower Frances Haugen’s testimony

On Tuesday, a Facebook whistleblower told US senators that the social media juggernaut promotes divisiveness, hurts children, and urgently needs to be controlled, prompting promises that Congress will take long-delayed action.

Frances Haugen, a former Facebook employee who disclosed reams of internal information to authorities and The Wall Street Journal, testified on Capitol Hill, fueling one of the company's most serious crises yet.

Watch: How Facebook algorithm harms children

Add WION as a Preferred Source

1. I believe that Facebook's products harm children, stoke division and weaken our democracy.
   
2. Congressional action is needed. They won't solve this crisis without your help.
   
3. The company intentionally hides vital information from the public, from the US government and from governments around the world.
   
4. There is no one currently holding Mark (Zuckerberg, the Facebook chief executive) to account. The buck stops with Mark."
   
5. Yesterday we saw Facebook taken off the internet. I don’t know why it went down, but I know that for more than five hours, Facebook wasn’t used to deepen divides, destabilise democracies and make young girls and women feel bad about their bodies.

Nick Clegg, Facebook's vice president of policy and global affairs, fiercely denied that its platforms are "poison" for adolescents, only days after a heated, hours-long congressional session in which US legislators questioned the firm on its influence on young users' mental health.

Late Monday, Facebook blamed the outage on changes to router configurations that coordinate network traffic between its data centres.

For years, US legislators have vowed to regulate Facebook and other social media platforms in response to complaints that the internet companies violate privacy, serve as a platform for hazardous disinformation, and harm the well-being of young people.

(With inputs from agencies)