With the recent controversy of the Facebook whistleblower, one must ask, how is Facebook’s algorithm impacting me and people I know. And the other millions of people. When I heard about a woman coming out against Facebook claiming they knowingly decreased people’s quality of life, I felt a sense of justice. A sense of justice that someone was so brave and courageous to go against a multi-billion-dollar company to fight for what is right and for all human beings of the world.

At the same time however, it angered me. I did not want it to be true, but I knew deep down that Facebook was more than likely doing these terrible things. People start businesses for many reasons, but the main reason is to make money and that is what Facebook wants to do at all costs. They do not care how you feel, they do not care what you are going through or the damage they have done to you. And that should anger you just as much as it angers me.

Frances Haugen, a former data scientist for Facebook, courageously made her stance against Facebook in her 60 Minutes interview. Haugen claims, “Facebook lied to the public about making progress against, hate, violence and misinformation.” But who else is going to hold Facebook accountable other than Haugen. Hopefully more than one person because I am sure Facebook can afford the best lawyer on Earth. This 60 Minutes interview by Haugen is very important in the development of mental health effects from social media, and I recommend to each and every one of you reading this to watch this interview for yourself. Keep in mind too that Facebook owns the app Instagram, the app that is designed and based around people’s personal lives and their social life. It was even revealed by Haugen that Instagram makes teenage girls feel worse about themselves and that Facebook is not doing anything to help. Hopefully, through Haugen’s bravery, Facebook will be held accountable for their actions.

Shortly after this interview, Facebook crashed and was inaccessible to many users which ironically, many Facebook users are referring to as the Facebook outage of 2021. I am proud and glad to say that I survived the Facebook outage of 2021, did you? What a crazy timing of the Facebook outage and coincidence that this occurred directly after the interview was released. Out of any time Facebook could have crashed, the one time it crashes shortly after a former employee comes out against the company with Facebook’s internal documents. According to the New York Times, the last significant outage was in 2019 and Facebook employees who had returned to working in the office were also unable to enter buildings and conference rooms because their digital badges stopped working.

I am no conspiracy theorist, but it is rather suspicious that the day after the 60 Minutes interview of Haugen came out, Facebook went offline, and employees had trouble entering buildings. Was Mark Zuckerberg, the CEO of Facebook, covering his tracks in preparation of future accusations? Time will tell.

Photo from Flickr