Louise Bernard with Alexis Patri 10:42 am, October 06, 2021
After whistleblower Frances Haugen's revelations, her hearing by the US Congress and a global blackout that caused Facebook's share price to drop, its co-founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg spoke publicly on Tuesday.
He refuted the accusations against his business.
A long denial, point by point.
The co-founder and CEO of Facebook Mark Zuckerberg defended himself Tuesday in a long publication posted on the social network in the face of the accusations against his company.
He thus claims to have never privileged his profits to the detriment of user safety.
An accusation made, first anonymously in the
Wall Street Journal
, then publicly in front of the US Congress by the whistleblower and former Facebook employee, Frances Haugen.
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Frances Haugen had notably made public the existence of internal studies on the discomfort of teenage Instagram users and the way in which Facebook, owner of this application, refused to fight against the phenomenon in order to maximize its profits.
The whistleblower also accuses the American firm of lying about the real number of users in order to overcharge advertisers.
Facebook, as dangerous as cigarettes?
Facing the US Congress, Frances Haugen called for regulating social networks, comparing Facebook to cigarettes in particular.
"When we understood the extent of the damage caused by the tobacco industry, the government intervened," she reminded American elected officials.
"When we realized that cars were safer with seat belts, the government stepped in."
If Mark Zuckerberg comes out of his silence in the face of his accusations, it is also because Facebook is caught in a larger turmoil, after the global blackout which affected its Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp and Messenger applications on Monday evening.
This led to a stock market plunge, which cost Mark Zuckerberg $ 7 billion.