CNN reported that during the much-anticipated testimony before the US Senate Subcommittee on Consumer Protection, Facebook whistleblower Frances Hogen repeatedly pointed out examples of how the social network can be used for dangerous purposes outside the country.
The former product manager on Tuesday made reference to a series of links between activity on Facebook and deadly violence in Myanmar and Ethiopia, and espionage by China and Iran.
Asked by a senator whether Facebook is used by “authoritarian or terrorist-based leaders” around the world, Hogen replied that such use of the platform is “definitely”, and that Facebook is “very aware” of it, the report said.
His last role at Facebook was with the company’s Counterspionage team, which it says “worked on directly tracking Chinese participation on the platform” surveying, say, Uighur populations around the world.
“You can actually find sugar by virtue of doing things like this,” she said.
In March, Facebook security staff revealed that Chinese hackers had targeted Uighur activists and journalists living outside the country with fake Facebook accounts and malware, the report said.
Haugen’s team also observed that “the active involvement of the Iranian government is spying on other state actors. This is certainly something that is happening,” she said.
This summer, Facebook’s head of cyber espionage investigation Mike DiVlyansky told CNN that the company had disabled “less than 200 operational accounts” on its platform linked to the Iranian spying campaign, and notified a similar number of Facebook users. by whom they may have been targeted. Group, report added.
Haugen, however, blamed “(Facebook’s) counter-espionage information campaign and continued lack of terrorism team” for the ongoing spread of such threats, and said he was talking about them with other parts of Congress as well. Was being
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