Facebook's defended itself over a whistleblower's claims that its products "harm children, stoke division and weaken our democracy".
Mark Zuckerberg says former employee Frances Haugen's testimony to the US senate "just doesn't reflect the company we know".
She told lawmakers Facebook knew it steered young users towards damaging content.
Facebook-owned app Instagram was "like cigarettes" for under-18s, according to the whistleblower.
“Yesterday we saw Facebook get taken off the Internet. I don’t know why it went down. But…for more than five hours, Facebook wasn’t used to deepen divides, destabilize democracies, and make young girls and women feel bad about their bodies,” Facebook whistleblower Frances Haugen pic.twitter.com/VNuwKrzuCA
— Jennifer Jacobs (@JenniferJJacobs) October 5, 2021
Ms Haugen's accused the company of being 'accountable to no-one'.
She told a US Congressional Committee Facebook know how to make their site safe, but choses not to.
She says the documents she provided to congress shows the site "repeatedly misleading the public about what it's own research reveals about safety to children".
She says her evidence contains proof of the role Facebook has in spreading "extreme messages".
The social network is arguing it's down to politicians to act and that it shouldn't be up to the tech industry to make 'societal decisions that belong to legislators'.
