Facebook defends Meta rebrand ahead of whistle-blower hearing

[BRUSSELS] Facebook's vice-president of content policy has pushed back against criticism that rebranding its parent company as Meta Platforms Inc was just a distraction from negative attention.

Monika Bickert's comments, given in an interview with Bloomberg, precede fresh testimony Monday by whistle-blower Frances Haugen in the European Parliament, where legislators are drafting strict new rules to rein in technology platforms.

Bikert said: "This is something we've been working on for a really long time, so no, this is not in response to anything recent."

Facebook, now a subsidiary of parent Meta, is reeling from heightened scrutiny after Haugen shared a trove of documents with journalists that suggested it prioritises profit over content moderation.

The leak coincided with Facebook's rebranding and its announcement to create 10,000 new jobs in the EU to help develop a "metaverse" while about 15,000 people globally moderate all content posted to the social media platform.

Critics, including Haugen and British lawmakers, said the company should focus on the safety of its existing platforms before creating a new one. This is "a false choice", Bickert said. "We will do both of those things."

She said the company supports giving users more transparency and control over the algorithms that determine what they see "in general". "I've seen regulatory proposals in the almost 10 years I've been here that, on the surface, sound great," she said. "But when you dive into the details of them, you realise that there could be some unintended consequences."

The EU's Digital Markets Act would target anti-competitive behaviour, while the Digital Services Act rules on how companies handle illegal and harmful content. Both proposals are being debated in EU institutions and intended to be enforceable next year.

Parliamentarians are expected to focus their questions to Haugen on the Digital Services Act and whether its proposal would do enough to address algorithms the whistle-blower says give too much priority to misinformation and hate speech.

EU commissioner for internal markets, Thierry Breton, said he had met Haugen earlier Monday and in a statement echoed sentiments of British lawmakers around executive accountability.

"At the end of the day, it is the CEO and the board who are responsible for their company's actions," he said. "The digital sphere is no exception."

BLOOMBERG