Facebook whistleblower hearing: livestream, live blog, and everything you need to know

On Tuesday, Facebook whistleblower Frances Haugen is appearing before a Senate Commerce subcommittee in what promises to be one of Facebook’s toughest congressional hearings in years. After serving as a source for a string of bombshell reports from The Wall Street Journal, Haugen went public on Sunday with concerns about Instagram’s mental health impacts on its youngest users, drawn from internal Facebook reports.

The result has been a new focus on child safety — a particular sore point for Facebook. The company has disputed claims that Instagram exacerbates body issues in teenage girls, but the broader concerns about algorithmic amplification of harmful content have been harder to dismiss. In a hearing last week, Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) shared the results of a test in which his own staff was bombarded with Instagram posts related to eating disorders and self-harm after creating a dummy account posing as a teenage girl. Today’s hearing is expected to focus on the same topics, with direct testimony from Haugen on the company’s decisions.

We’ll be updating this post with everything that happens during the hearing — every question from lawmakers, every important quote, and every piece of new information from Haugen. Stay tuned.

In his opening remarks, Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) described how Facebook “has put profits ahead of people.” He noted how the platform’s algorithmic feeds can amplify insecurities in its younger users.

“I hope we will discuss whether there is such a thing as a safe algorithm,” Blumenthal said.

Blumenthal also called on Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg to return to Congress to testify on behalf of the Wall Street Journal’s recent revelations on child safety. Facebook has vigorously contested many of Haugen’s claims, but done so through surrogates like global head of safety Antigone Davis or public relations lead Nick Clegg.

“Rather than taking responsibility and showing leadership, Mr. Zuckerberg is going sailing,” Blumenthal said.

This post will be updated with more information as the hearing progresses — reload the page to see more content.