"The algorithms take people who have very mainstream interests and they push them towards extreme interests", she said. "You can be someone centre-left and you'll be pushed radical left. You can be centre-right and you'll be pushed radical right".
"When I worked on counter espionage, I saw things where I was concerned about national security and I had no idea how to escalate those because I didn't have faith in my chain of command", Haugen said.
"I flagged repeatedly when I worked on integrity that I felt that critical teams were understaffed", Hagen continued. "Right now there's no incentives internally, that if you make noise, saying we need more help — people will not get rallied around for help, because everyone is underwater".
"One of the things that happens with groups and networks of groups is people see echo chambers that create social norms", Haugen said. "When that context is around hate you see a normalisation of hate, a normalisation of dehumanising others, and that's what leads to violent incidents".
Asked whether Facebook executives cared if they were harming children and young people, Haugen said she couldn’t “see into the hearts of men”, but added: “When they see a conflict of interest between people and profits, they choose profits”.