WASHINGTON, D.C. | October 5, 2021 — Today, Facebook whistleblower Frances Haugen testified before the U.S. Senate Subcommittee on Consumer Protection, Product Safety, and Data Security about Facebook’s refusal to effectively remove the toxic and criminal content on its site. The National Whistleblower Center (NWC) celebrates Haugen’s courage and supports the credibility of her allegations, which she filed to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), as they are preceded by several SEC whistleblower disclosures against Facebook filed by whistleblowers working with NWC. Haugen’s statements are a testament to the veracity of these whistleblowers’ long-standing allegations indicating that Facebook knowingly provides users with criminal intent the necessary technologies to commit crimes against children, support terrorism, and sell drugs with impunity. NWC calls for an aggressive investigation.
Since 2017, NWC, the Alliance to Counter Crime Online (ACCO), and whistleblower law firm Kohn, Kohn & Colapinto (KKC) have assisted several anonymous whistleblowers in filing complaints with the SEC. Each complaint outlines the various manners in which Facebook supports crime for profit. These petitions detail how Facebook is used as a tool for human trafficking, terrorist financing, and the sale of drugs. The disclosures allege that Facebook is profiting from illegal activity on its site and putting its shareholders at risk by failing to fully disclose the amount of illegal activity the site hosts and promotes.
“Facebook is guilty as charged,” said NWC Chairman of the Board Stephen M. Kohn. “Since 2017, we have filed numerous complaints with the SEC alleging securities laws violations. The new whistleblower’s information significantly strengthens our ongoing cases to hold Facebook accountable,” continued Kohn, who is also a founding partner at KKC.
“NWC is happy to see the legal theory that our attorneys helped develop deployed by other whistleblowers,” said NWC Executive Director Siri Nelson. “As a publicly traded company, Facebook is violating U.S. securities laws by misleading the public about the illegal activity it facilitates on its platform. We applaud Frances Haugen’s courage to step forward and challenge the government to have the same courage and finally take corrective action.”
“Our research and analysis have shown that Facebook failed to establish internal controls to restrict toxic content on its family of platforms, including organized crime activity, terror finance, and human trafficking, and that Facebook executives have repeatedly made material misstatements and omissions about these issues that negatively impact investors,” said ACCO’s Executive Director Gretchen Peters. “For years, we have warned these problems would materially reduce Facebook’s market share, just like what is happening today.”
Kohn, a leading authority on securities whistleblowing, is available for comments on the matter and for interviews.
For more information, please contact Nick Younger at nick.younger@whistleblowers.org.
