Facebook’s Oversight Board will meet with the Facebook whistleblower

Facebook’s external policy review board will meet with Frances Haugen, a former Facebook employee who went public with her concerns about the company last week. Facebook’s Oversight Board announced Monday that it would meet with Haugen “in the coming weeks” after the whistleblower accepted the board’s invitation to speak.

“Board members appreciate the chance to discuss Ms. Haugen’s experiences and gather information that can help push for greater transparency and accountability from Facebook through our case decisions and recommendations,” the Oversight Board wrote in a blog post.

I have accepted the invitation to brief the Facebook Oversight Board about what I learned while working there. Facebook has lied to the board repeatedly, and I am looking forward to sharing the truth with them.

— Frances Haugen (@FrancesHaugen) October 11, 2021

In its announcement of the meeting with Haugen, the Oversight Board mentioned its ongoing interest in a secret Facebook program known as “cross check” that allowed some high profile users to circumvent the platform’s rules. The board said it was specifically examining whether the company had been “fully forthcoming” when answering questions on the cross check system and plans to share its findings in a report later in October.

The Wall Street Journal reported the existence of the program in an investigative series on Facebook published last month. Those reports drew on documents provided by Haugen, who at the time served as an unrevealed source for the paper.

Facebook whistleblower Frances Haugen testifies before the Senate