Frances Haugen (2022) | Unmasking Facebook

Frances Haugen (2022) | Unmasking Facebook

Author: Festival of Dangerous Ideas May 8, 2023 Duration: 32:31

Former Facebook product manager, Frances Haugen did not set out to be a whistleblower, but when it became a question of saving lives, she knew it was time to tell the truth. On top of her concerns about mental health and hate speech, finding out that the Facebook platform was being used by human traffickers in Ethiopia tipped the balance.

With almost half the people in the world using Meta's platforms, and leadership of the company vigorously denying her accusation that it values profits over people, Frances Haugen wants to show us Facebook from the inside, so we can see what it really values.

Frances Haugen is a specialist in algorithmic product management, having worked on ranking algorithms at Google, Pinterest, Yelp and Facebook. She was recruited to Facebook to be the lead Product Manager on the Civic Misinformation team, which dealt with issues related to democracy and misinformation, and later also worked on counter-espionage. During her time at Facebook, Haugen became increasingly alarmed by the choices the company makes prioritising their own profits over public safety and putting people's lives at risk. As a last resort and at great personal risk, Frances made the courageous decision to blow the whistle on Facebook. Haugen fundamentally believes that the problems we are facing today with social media are solvable. 


For more than a decade, the Festival of Dangerous Ideas has curated a space where provocative thinking isn't just welcomed, it's the entire point. This podcast is a direct line to that stage, offering an archive of talks that deliberately unsettle comfortable opinions and interrogate the stubborn problems we often agree to ignore. Each episode captures a live conversation from Australia's original disruptive ideas festival, presenting arguments that can be exhilarating, uncomfortable, and vitally important. You’ll hear from a compelling roster of festival alumni-including leading experts, intellectual troublemakers, and visionary authors-who share perspectives that conventional discourse frequently sidelines. The discussions here aren't theoretical exercises; they grapple with the pressing and difficult issues shaping our society and culture right now. Tuning in means granting yourself access to a decade-long tradition of intellectual courage, where the core assumption is that some truths are only reached by first entertaining a dangerous idea. It’s a chance to listen as boundaries are pushed, not for shock value, but for clarity. The result is a consistently challenging and refreshing audio experience that complicates simple narratives and expands what feels possible to talk about.
Author: Language: English Episodes: 100

Festival of Dangerous Ideas
Podcast Episodes
Adam Tooze (2022) | F=Fail [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 40:58
The 21st century was supposed to be better than this. As we confront the impacts of climate change, wars old and new, the pandemic and its aftermath, and a dangerously fragile global financial system, it's time to ask 'W…
Jacqui Lambie (2022) | On Blowing Things Up [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 34:29
Known as one of the most fierce and outspoken politicians in the country, Jacqui Lambie does not hold back. Not with her opinion, her work ethic, or her convictions. And she's done the unthinkable, for a politician, she'…
Masha Gessen & Tom Switzer (2014) | Putin [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 1:07:35
It's been over 30 years since the fall of the Berlin Wall and the dissolution of the Soviet Union and 22 years since Vladimir Putin came to power. Now in the throes of a Ukraine invasion, the Russian regime combats any c…
Jesse Bering (2012) | We Are All Sexual Perverts [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 49:21
We may not want to admit it, but there is a spectrum of perversion along which we all sit. Whether it's voyeurism, exhibitionism, or your run-of-the-mill foot fetish, we all possess a suite of sexual tastes as unique as…
FODI: The In-Between | 08.5 | Endtropy | B-Side [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 4:01
A playerless piano performs a repeating piece of music in which every note of a scale is played on every beat of the bar. The melody is absorbed into chaos, as the words of Noami Klein and Waleed Aly speak of our interco…
FODI: The In-Between | 07.5 | Revivification | B-Side [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 5:47
CellF is a cybernetic musician and the world's first neural synthesiser, created by Perth-based artist and researcher, Guy Ben-Ary. Its 'brain' is made of biological neural networks bio-engineered from the artist's own c…
FODI: The In-Between | 06.5 | Tongues | B-Side [not-audio_url] [/not-audio_url]

Duration: 5:02
Tongues is an explicit, potent musical manifesto, exploring having your voice taken away, in response to Roxane Gay and Kate Manne's discussion. Tongues is written and performed by Tanya Tagaq, a Canadian Inuk improvisat…