A Facebook Whistleblower Sits Atop the Public Relations Behemoth

This article features our Senior International Fellow, Vigjilenca Abazi, and was originally published here.

A Facebook whistleblower sits atop the public relations behemoth.

Frances Haugen, a former Facebook employee, came onto the stage in Portugal to thunderous acclaim, the latest step in a path that has varied radically from those of other high-profile whistleblowers who have ended up in exile or catastrophe.

Even though it’s far from likely that Haugen will achieve her stated objective of reforming Facebook, she has benefited from well-oiled PR machinery, influential donors, and a lucky cryptocurrency gamble.

Internal reports obtained by her smartphone camera and distributed to journalists have already resulted in a barrage of damaging stories, with the common theme being that Facebook executives were aware that the platform could harm teens, ethnic minorities, or democracy, but were more concerned with profits.

Rather than becoming homeless or facing prosecution, Haugen, 37, has become a media-savvy spokesperson on a global tour highlighting the reaction against the major social media behemoth.

“It’s obviously not a David versus Goliath situation — she’s so much more organized and in a position to wield influence,” said Vigjilenca Abazi, a senior international fellow at the Government Accountability Project, a whistleblower protection organization in the United States.

Haugen has spoken before the US Congress and the British Parliament in recent weeks, and European Union MPs have invited her to testify on November 8.

In the meanwhile, she found time to be interviewed on stage in front of a standing-room-only crowd at the Web Summit tech conference in Lisbon.

“As I previously stated, I had no intention of ever coming out. As she explained her journey from working on Facebook’s anti-misinformation team to international fame, Haugen stated, “I don’t like attention.”

One of her most important choices was to join Whistleblower Aid, a group that claims to help employees “report and publicize their concerns — securely, lawfully, and ethically.”

“They had many, many weeks and months of conversation about what pushed her to this… what her proof looked like,” said Libby Liu, the group’s CEO, onstage with Haugen in Portugal. “After that, she kept us.” However, money is always an issue, and after resigning from Facebook in April, Haugen claims to be doing fine in Puerto Rico.

“For the time being, I’m fine,” she told The New York Times, alluding to the unpredictable but now flourishing digital currencies.

Having wealthy and important sponsors, such as billionaire tech critic and eBay founder Pierre Omidyar’s global philanthropy foundation, has helped.