Ms Frances Haugen:

I thank the committee for inviting me. I am excited to be here. My name is Frances Haugen. Last year I left my job at Facebook as I felt I could no longer be part of a system which harms children, stokes division and weakens our democracies. I disclosed what I felt governments and the public should know about what is happening within these social media giants and the deliberate choices they make to maximise their profits at the expense of public safety and the never-ending pursuit of growth at any cost. I hope my revelations have been valuable for committees such as this one.

It is clear governments all over the world had been searching for answers about how to tackle some of the biggest issues of the day and how to protect their citizens and their democracies, but they did not have enough information even to ask the right questions let alone write the answers. This is beginning to change, with European nations leading the way in developing game-changing online safety regimes. As the European home to some of the most powerful companies in the world, Ireland has a unique role to play in holding these companies to account.

As the online safety Bill acknowledges, self-regulation of social media has not worked. Platforms cannot be trusted to act in the public interest. They are often, as my revelations showed, fully aware of the harms caused by their products and services and yet choose to ignore these in favour of growth and profit. The Bill is an important intervention, as is the EU Digital Services Act. Both regimes say "enough is enough". Their alignment is critical, not least because Ireland will need to implement the Digital Services Act but also because regulatory fragmentation does nothing to help Irish citizens. It only creates complexity and uncertainty at a time when what we really need is clarity. The Digital Services Act and Ireland’s online safety Bill should align on key principles that allow quick, effective regulatory implementation.

There is, of course, no silver bullet to make the Internet safer. The challenge is how to make things easier and not harder. Alignment between Ireland and the EU will be crucial in smoothing this path. Part of this alignment is about how to develop robust rights-respecting regimes that go to the heart of the business model of platforms, addressing the algorithms and design features that enable the spread of disinformation and hate. We all want Ireland’s Bill to succeed, and to do so it must focus less on content and more on how that content is shared, spread and amplified. It is the systems of these platforms that should be the top priority and not the content. These are systems that promote harm, target people with conspiracy theories and drive people to hate and abuse. We cannot simply rely on the deletion or criminalisation of harmful content. This is not only because it risks infringing on free speech but because it does not work. Regulatory regimes that have focused solely on deleting content have failed. There is just too much out there.

We have seen too many examples of how hypervirality and amplification of lies and hate can lead to division and polarisation online, and violence and harm offline.

The US insurrection and Covid infodemic are just a couple. However, this is far from just a western issue. In fact, some of the most egregious harms caused by the decisions made in the shiny glass headquarters in Facebook in Dublin have been in faraway places like Myanmar and Ethiopia. The ethnic violence fuelled by Facebook in those countries are the opening chapters of a book too horrific to read.

That is why I came forward. I can no longer be part of such a company. It is also why I am urging the Irish Government to reflect deeply on its own role and on the responsibilities that come with housing these social media manipulation machines. An important live decision currently rests with Ireland.

A few Rohingya youth from Myanmar have filed a complaint with the OECD national contact point in Ireland demanding justice for the genocidal violence unleashed against their community. They are desperate for financial support to be able to continue their studies from refugee camps in Bangladesh. Facebook has admitted it failed to stop horrific hate speech in Myanmar on its platform. The UN concluded Facebook played a “determining role” in fuelling hate against the Rohingya. Despite this, this trillion dollar company refuses to provide any meaningful remedy for fuelling violence, while pouring money into video games and virtual reality. That is why these Rohingya youth are now appealing to Ireland to intervene.

Ireland has been part of the OECD for 50 years and has committed to promoting its standards for responsible business conduct. It rests with Ireland to evaluate the facts and decide whether it will promote justice or the interests of a trillion-dollar profit machine. I am hopeful that Ireland will do what the Tánaiste, Deputy Leo Varadkar, promised when Ireland got a seat at the UN Security Council, which was to champion "peace and security, conflict resolution and reconciliation."

Finally, as Ireland sets up the new regulator for its online safety regime, I would urge it to learn lessons from the criticisms of its other digital regulator, the Data Protection Commission, DPC. The DPC is widely considered to have stepped back from its responsibilities in properly enforcing general data protection regulation, GDPR. The tech companies on Ireland's shores, once again, got away with it. As Ireland creates an independent, robust and effective online safety regulator, it must launch an independent review into the DPC so that it too can start to enforce the law thoroughly and boldly.

Governments and citizens around the world will be watching Ireland’s regulatory regime closely. It is reassuring that members are taking this agenda seriously, and I urge them to lead by example when holding these companies to account. Members have the power and responsibility not only to improve the online safety of Irish citizens, but of people across the world.