Facebook whistleblower says Irish Government should order independent review of Data Protection Commission

Last year, former Facebook data scientist Frances Haugen leaked internal company documents to the media and claimed Facebook was guilty of putting profits ahead of public safety. File picture: AP /Alex Brandon

The Government should order an independent review of the Data Protection Commission, a Facebook whistleblower has told an Oireachtas committee.

Frances Haugen was speaking to the Oireachtas Tourism, Culture, Arts, Sport and Media Committee about online misinformation and digital literacy on Wednesday and said that Ireland had the choice between promoting "facts" or "the interests of a billion-dollar profit machine".

She said that Ireland could improve online safety for people across the world.

"I would urge you to learn the lessons from criticisms of your data protection commission. The DPC is widely considered to have stepped back from its responsibilities in properly enforcing GDPR. The tech companies on your shores once again got away with it.

"As you create an independent, robust and effective online safety regulator. You must launch an independent review into the DPC so that it can start to enforce the law thoroughly and boldly.

"Governments and citizens around the world will be watching Ireland's regulatory regime closely. It is reassuring that you're taking this agenda seriously. And I urge you to lead by example when holding these companies to account.

"You have the power and the responsibility not only to improve online safety for our citizens, but for people across the world."

Ms Haughen said that it was imperative that governments tackled the algorithms behind the platforms rather than their content but said that while Ireland's proposed Online Safety Commission would need 20 experts in the field, there was just 200 or 300 qualified people in the world. Each of those, she added, would expect pay of around $500,000 a year.

Last year, Ms Haugen leaked internal company documents to the media and claimed Facebook was guilty of putting profits ahead of public safety.

Since leaving Facebook, Ms Haugen has spoken publicly about her concerns with Facebook’s practices, suggesting the company’s products "harm children, stoke division and weaken democracy."

Speaking to Newstalk Breakfast, Ms Haugen said because much of big tech is homed out of Ireland, “Ireland plays a critical role in making sure things like the [EU's proposed] digital services act are adequately enforced.

“I strongly encourage Ireland to step up to the plate and make sure a regulator is put in place to make sure these regulations are implemented. A law is only as good as its implementation,” she said.

However, Ms Haugen believes Europe must work together to regulate big tech firms and that the burden should not be placed on Ireland alone.

“If we want to do a good job of holding tech accountable — and I think Ireland holds a very special role on that — we have to adequately fund our regulator.

I worry that placing the entire burden on Ireland isn’t fair. 

"As we’ve seen with the current data protection authority in Ireland, there’s a huge backlog — it’s hard to get the resources to do these things adequately.

“By working together, you’ll get a much more robust and effective regulator."

Ms Haugen believes the regulation shouldn't focus on content, saying people can get "lured into a trap" by social media companies when talking about these issues.

“They want us to argue about censorship, but not the reality that the way their algorithms are designed today, the most extreme ideas — on the left, right or whatever dimension you want to look at — get the most distribution."

Ms Haugen explained that platforms have to make choices about the content people see on their platform, which presently is determined by “engagement-based rankings”.

“They prioritise the content that is most likely to elicit a reaction from you.

"The only problem is when we assess the value of content based on the likelihood that it gets a reaction from us, it gives a bias to content that elicits strong emotional reactions.

The fastest path to a click is hate.

“These systems are always looking at what rabbit hole they can pull you down.

"Just by clicking on the content that Facebook gives you, over the course of a couple of weeks it will lead you to things like eating disorder content. It’s super scary.”