Facebook’s pristine whistleblower

Former Facebook employee and whistleblower Frances Haugen attends a Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation hearing entitled 'Protecting Kids Online: Testimony from a Facebook Whistleblower' on Capitol Hill, in Washington, October 5, 202
Former Facebook employee and whistleblower Frances Haugen attends a Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation hearing entitled 'Protecting Kids Online: Testimony from a Facebook Whistleblower' on Capitol Hill, in Washington, October 5, 2021. Matt McClain/Pool via REUTERS

WASHINGTON, Oct 6 (Reuters Breakingviews) - Facebook (FB.O) whistleblower Frances Haugen is going to be tough to discredit. She has a shrewd public relations campaign to thank for that read more .

She began as an anonymous source for a Wall Street Journal investigation, then revealed herself on the popular U.S. news show “60 Minutes.” Almost simultaneously, she had the website franceshaugen.com ready to roll. Fans could sign up for email updates from her and she even linked a press contact. She capped it off with articulate testimony before a Senate hearing on Tuesday.

Companies from Google to Tesla (TSLA.O) have been blamed for going on smear campaigns against employees and other whistleblowers that aired public grievances. It helped that Haugen had thousands of documents to back up her claims that Mark Zuckerberg’s firm did little to rein in hate speech and change what it knew was Instagram’s damaging effect on the mental health of teenage girls read more . Still, the media blitz is a model for other would-be whistleblowers to emulate. (By Gina Chon)

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Editing by Lauren Silva Laughlin and Amanda Gomez

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