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John Tye, founder of Whistleblower Aid, a legal nonprofit that represents people trying to expose potential lawbreakers, was contacted this spring via a cross-link by a woman who claims to work at Facebook.

The woman said something intriguing to Mr. Tye and his team: She had access to tens of thousands of pages of internal documents from the world’s largest social network. In a series of searches, he sought legal protection and a way to disclose confidential information. Saying that he understood the seriousness of what the woman brought “within a few minutes”, Mr. Tye agreed to represent her and call her “Sean”.

“He’s a very brave person and takes a personal risk to hold a trillion-dollar company accountable,” he said.

On Sunday, Frances Haugen announced she was an informant against Facebook. Before leaving in May, a product manager who worked on the social network’s civic misinformation team used the documents she collected to reveal how much she knew about the damages the company was causing, and provided evidence to lawmakers, regulators and officials. news media.

“I saw a lot of social networks and it was much worse than what I had seen before on Facebook,” Ms. Haugen, 37, told “60 Minutes” in an interview. “Facebook has shown time and time again that it prefers profit to security,” he added.

Ms. Haugen gave most of the Facebook documents to The Wall Street Journal, which began publishing the findings last month. Revelations – this includes Facebook She knew Instagram was exacerbating her body image issues The fact that it is among the youth and has a two-tier justice system has drawn criticism from lawmakers, regulators and the public.

Ms. Haugen also filed a whistleblower complaint. Securities and Exchange Commissionaccused Facebook of misleading investors on a variety of issues with public statements that did not align with the company’s internal actions. He spoke to lawmakers like Connecticut Democratic Senator Richard Blumenthal and Tennessee Republican Senator Marsha Blackburn and shared subsets of documents with them.

The spotlight on Ms. Haugen is getting ready to shine even brighter. He is scheduled to testify in Congress on Tuesday about Facebook’s impact on young users.

Ms. Haugen’s actions were a sign of how Facebook was increasingly leaking. As the company has grown into a giant with more than 63,000 employees, it has become dissatisfied as some have drifted away from debates over data privacy. incorrect information and hate speech.

in 2018 Christopher Wylie, a disgruntled former employee of consulting firm Cambridge Analytica, laid the groundwork for these leaks. Mr Wylie spoke with The New York Times, The Observer of London and The Guardian and revealed that Cambridge Analytica improperly collected Facebook data to create voter profiles without users’ consent.

Afterwards, many of Facebook’s own employees started talking. Later that year, Facebook employees executive notes and planning documents To news sources including The Times and BuzzFeed News. Employees who disagree with Facebook in mid-2020 a controversial decision to leave a post From President Donald J. Trump organized a virtual walk and sent more internal information to news outlets.

“There’s been more leaks over the past year than we’d all want,” said Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook’s CEO. said at a meeting With employees in June 2020.

Facebook has already tried to take precautionary measures against Ms. Haugen. Nick Clegg, Facebook’s vice president of policy and global affairs, said on Friday. sent a 1,500-word note to employees revealing what the whistleblower would likely say in “60 Minutes” and calling the accusations “misleading.” On Sunday, Mr. Clegg appeared on CNN to defend the company, saying the platform reflects “the good, bad and ugly sides of humanity” and seeks to “lighten, reduce and magnify the good”.

Him personal Web site Ms. Haugen said she was “an advocate of public scrutiny of social media”. Born in Iowa, Iowa, he studied electrical and computer engineering at Olin College and earned an MBA from Harvard. He later worked on algorithms at Google, Pinterest, and Yelp. According to his website, he has worked on counter-espionage at Facebook, in addition to addressing issues of democracy and misinformation.

Ms. Haugen’s complaint to the SEC was based on the document in her possession and consisted of several cover letters, seven of which were obtained by The Times. Each letter detailed a different topic – for example, Facebook’s role in spreading misinformation after the 2020 election; the impact of its products on the mental health of young people; and statements about user demographics and activity – and accused the company of making “material misrepresentations and omissions in disclosures to and potential investors.”

The letters compared public statements and statements made to lawmakers by Mr. Zuckerberg and other top Facebook executives to the company’s internal research and documents. In a cover letter, Ms. Haugen said Facebook contributed to election misinformation and the January 6 riot at the US Capitol.

While in her cover letter, “Facebook made public its efforts to combat misinformation and violent extremism regarding the 2020 elections and the uprising,” Ms. Haugen’s documents told a different story. “In reality, Facebook knew its algorithms and platforms promoted such harmful content and failed to implement recommended or permanent countermeasures internally.”

Mr. Tye said he was in contact with the SEC’s whistleblower office and enforcement division regarding Facebook. The SEC typically provides protections for corporate whistleblowers that protect them from retaliation. The agency also rewards whistleblowers between 10 percent and 30 percent if their whistleblower leads to successful enforcement actions that result in fines of more than $1 million.

The SEC did not respond to a request for comment.

After filing the SEC complaint, Ms. Haugen and her legal team contacted Mr. Blumenthal and Ms. Blackburn, Mr. Tye said. Lawmakers held a hearing in May on protecting children online, focusing on how companies like Facebook collect data through apps like Instagram.

In August, Mr. Blumenthal and Ms. Blackburn sent a letter to Mr. Zuckerberg asking Facebook to disclose its internal research on how their service affects children’s mental health. Facebook responded with a letter revealing the positive effects of its apps on children and deflecting questions about internal research.

But Mr. Blumenthal said in an interview that Ms. Haugen’s documents show that Facebook researchers have done many studies on the effects of their product on teens.

He said Facebook was dealing with “cloaking and deception”. “If Facebook really wants to be trusted, they should publish all the documents.” In Friday’s tweets, Mr. Blumenthal also said the whistleblower provided “damn” documents about Facebook and Instagram.

Mr. Tye said some of Ms. Haugen’s Facebook documents were also distributed to state attorneys general of California, Vermont, Tennessee, Massachusetts and Nebraska.

But he said the documents were not shared with the Federal Trade Commission. filed an antitrust suit against Facebook. This is because Ms. Haugen “generally does not see antitrust as the most important policy approach,” Mr. Tye said. “He wants to see meaningful regulatory reform focused on transparency and accountability.”

Ms. Haugen met with MPs in France and the UK, as well as a member of the European Parliament. He is scheduled to appear before a British parliamentary committee this month. Mr Tye will follow this up at the Web Summit, a technology conference in Lisbon, and in Brussels in November to meet with European policymakers.