Facebook’s role in Myanmar and Ethiopia under new scrutiny

Whistleblower Frances Haugen adds to long-held concerns that social media site is fuelling violence and instability

Whistleblower Frances Haugen's testimony to US senators on Tuesday shone a light on violence and instability in Myanmar and Ethiopia in recent years and long-held concerns about links with activity on Facebook.

What we saw in Myanmar and are now seeing in Ethiopia are only the opening chapters of a story so terrifying, no one wants to read the end of it," Haugen said in her striking testimony. Haugen warned that Facebook was literally fanning ethnic violence" in places such as Ethiopia because it was not policing its service adequately outside the US.