Anticipating a Barrage of Difficult Headlines on FB

Facebook’s woes keep piling up. The tech giant has been in the news for months for various reasons, and it will soon be back in the spotlight again. That’s the warning given to Facebook employees by VP of Global Affairs Nick Clegg, who gave employees the heads-up in a memo.

But why is Facebook bracing itself for bad headlines? Read on to find out.

More Bad Headlines for Facebook

Facebook has had a tough few months, and has been taking several blows in the media all year. For instance, Facebook has received backlash for announcing plans to launch an Instagram app for kids, and has been grilled by US Congress.

This comes after the Wall Street Journal released a bombshell report—The Facebook Files —which opened a can of worms for Facebook.

Following the release of the Wall Street Journal’s report, whistleblower and former Facebook employee Frances Haugen appeared in a CBS News’ 60 Minutes interview, where she made damning accusations against Facebook to back up the report.

And the storm isn’t over yet. According to Axios , Clegg told employees, “We need to steel ourselves for more bad headlines in the coming days, I’m afraid.”

That’s because Facebook had caught wind of an upcoming, coordinated release of the leaked documents from Haugen by a consortium of reporters. In the memo, Clegg encouraged employees to, “listen and learn from criticism when it is fair, and push back strongly when it is not.”

Who Is the Facebook Whistleblower?

The Facebook whistleblower is Frances Haugen, a 37-year-old woman and data scientist from Iowa. Haugen was a product manager on the Civic Integrity team at Facebook. Before joining Facebook, she worked for big tech companies like Google and Pinterest for nearly two decades.

After leaving Facebook, Haugen filed complaints with federal law enforcement against her former employer, claiming that Facebook’s research shows that the platform amplifies hate, misinformation, and political unrest—although the company hides that.

After the Wall Street Journal released the documents she had provided, after having collected and stored them while working for Facebook, Haugen then discussed her claims on an interview on CBS News’ 60 Minutes.

Following this interview, reporters have reportedly been contacting Haugen for comments and interviews, and her representatives reportedly approached a consortium of news outlets to release documents related to Haugen’s claims.

What Is the Facebook Consortium?

The Facebook Consortium is a group of reporters tasked with releasing information from copies of leaked documents from Haugen. These include publications like the Associated Press, The New York Times, The Washington Post, and CNN. A few European outlets are also included.

The consortium’s goal was to amplify findings from the leaked documents by having all these news organizations report on them at the same time, thereby making a significant impact.

Axios reports that the outlets that received the documents communicated their strategy for release via Slack, even going as far as setting creating some rules. The terms included plans to publish all stories simultaneously, and not to alert Facebook of the upcoming stories in advance until a few days before the publication date.

However, that plan fell apart when some outlets contacted Facebook shortly after receiving the documents on October 10, 2021, after which the rest of the news outlets—including The New York Times, CNN, NBC News, and Bloomberg—started publishing their stories.

Can Facebook Overcome This Storm?

Facebook has had a lot of negative press in recent months. While it has had some challenges over the years, the challenges Facebook now faces are quite serious.

Facebook will probably overcome this current scandal, but its goodwill may be tarnished in the process, given the sensitivity and seriousness of the documents shared by Haugen. However, as to how much damage it will do to Facebook overall, only time will tell.