The Bullog - November 2021

Blowing the whistle

Conventional wisdom in business suggests that if some high-profile person publicly trashes your brand on the global stage, citing compelling evidence of the harmful effects of your products or services, you might fear going out of business or at the very least, suffer some serious commercial harm.?It would appear that conventional wisdom doesn’t apply to Facebook.

The world has looked on with a mixture of intrigue and curiosity as whistle-blower, Frances Haugen, has testified in front of the US Congress and last week the British Parliament Select Committee.?Haugen has now left the company, but took with her volumes of sensitive internal data exposing what she claims is evidence of the negative effects of Facebook in society.?These range from promoting extremism, increasing social polarisation and undermining the democratic process.

However, the most harmful allegations are around the impact of Instagram on the mental health of teenage girls in particular.?Haugen claims that the company’s own internal research proves that they are well aware of these harmful consequences, such as endemic online bullying, and a significant rise in mental health issues. ?Yet Facebook is apparently reluctant to act, allegedly putting profit before people.?Her testimonies have been nothing short of toxic for the company.

Some might suggest that Facebook’s recent decision to change its name to “Meta” was linked to this controversy – to distance itself from a brand that was attracting such bad publicity.?Not so.?It’s just the holding company that’s changing its name and we’ll still have all its sub brands such as Facebook, WhatsApp and Instagram.

And the economic impact of all this bad publicity on Facebook??Profit topped $9bn last quarter and their revenues have grown 35% to $29bn on the back of a boom in online advertising.?Normally one would think that major brands wouldn’t want their reputations tarnished by association with such a controversial company. Not so apparently.

I feel there are strong parallels and more than a slight sense of déjà vu with the world’s experience with Big Tobacco several decades ago. As growing evidence mounted of the harmful effects of smoking through both internal and external research, the tobacco giants continued to sell and promote cigarettes and grow profits, claiming their products were not in any way harmful.

Well, we all know how that ended up - a spate of litigation from cancer victims and their families spanning decades and costing the tobacco companies billions.?I wonder if the social media giants may find themselves in a similar position in the years to come with the families of teenagers who have suffered badly?

The regular Bullogers amongst you know that I write a lot about intrapreneurship and employee activism in context of broader shifts of power that are going on in business.?Whistle-blowers such as Frances Haugen share many of the same traits: ?a strong ethical compass, the willingness to take personal risk and to subject oneself to ridicule in an attempt to influence a company to do the right thing. ?Let’s hope that a few more Frances Haugens might come forward in other industries and organisations to ensure that employees at the coal face hold their employers to account, for the benefit of us all.

This article is an extract from the?November edition of The Bullog*, my monthly?blog. To read the full blog or to sign up to receive The Bullog directly each month?visit………www.gibbulloch.com/bullog.