The European Parliament will invite Frances Haugen to speak to the chamber on November 8.
MEPs agreed to ask Haugen, a former Facebook employee who accused the company of not doing enough to mitigate the harms done on its platform, to present her findings to the Parliament, where lawmakers are currently working on a content moderation bill known as the Digital Services Act.
Haugen has not yet confirmed if she will attend.
Haugen is the main source for a series of articles on the company, published by the Wall Street Journal, which suggest that Facebook knowingly pushed products that allowed human trafficking and hurt children’s self-esteem.
European lawmakers have been working on the Digital Services Act, which will force tech companies such as Facebook to crack down on illegal content, tackle systemic issues on their platforms such as disinformation, revise their content and advertising algorithms and open up their data to regulators and researchers.
Haugen spoke in the U.S. Senate last week. She has also been engaging with European officials as well, having spoken with key MEPs including Christel Schaldemose and Alexandra Geese, and top Commission officials Thierry Breton and Věra Jourová.
Faced with widespread backlash, Facebook on Sunday offered to make changes that would protect teenagers from content on its Instagram app that “may not be conducive to their well-being” and encourage users to “take a break” periodically while using the app.
Haugen is also scheduled to testify in the U.K. Parliament on October 25.
MEPs in the internal market committee are also slated to vote on the Digital Markets and Services Act on November 8.
Credit: Source link