Facebook Whistleblower Expected To Say Company Contributed To Capitol Riots on '60 Minutes'

Facebook Inc FB executives are anticipating a former employee whistleblower to accuse the company of contributing to the Capitol riots in Washington in January on CBS's "60 Minutes" Sunday evening.

What Happened: The whistleblower, who already shared internal documents with the Wall Street Journal, will appear on the ViacomCBS Inc VIAC program, and is also set to testify before a Senate subcommittee on Tuesday.

Nick Clegg, Facebook’s head of global policy, braced employees on Friday evening for the expected charges. In the 1,500-word memo, Clegg rejected the upcoming accusations, calling them “misleading”.

“Social media has had a big impact on society in recent years, and Facebook is often a place where much of this debate plays out,” he wrote. “But what evidence there is simply does not support the idea that Facebook, or social media more generally, is the primary cause of polarization.”

What’s Next: The whistleblower plans to reveal her identity during the interview. She is also expected to accuse Facebook of turning off some of its safety measures around the election, such as limits on live video, too soon after Election Day, the memo said.

Clegg points out that Facebook has more than 40,000 employees working on safety and security, and more than 5 billion fake accounts were removed in 2020.

Between March 2020 and Election Day, the company removed over 265,000 pieces of Facebook and Instagram content in the U.S. which violated voter interference policies, the memo adds.

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