[24][25] Based on the leaked documents, Kevin Roose, writing for The New York Times, suggested Facebook might be a weaker social media company than it previously appeared to be.
[27] At least eight complaints were filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) by Haugen's attorneys,[19][10] covering topics reported by The Wall Street Journal, and including how Facebook deals with political misinformation, hate speech, teenage mental health, human trafficking, the promotion of ethnic violence, preferential treatment of certain users, and its communications with investors.
[28] In a SEC whistleblower complaint, Haugen alleged Facebook had misled investors, given that they had misrepresented the progress they had made in tackling hate, violence and misinformation on the platform.
[32][33] The complaint stated that many users and pages associated with the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) promoted fear-mongering and anti-Muslim narratives, with an intent to incite violence.
[35][36] Haugen also asserted that the lack of Hindi and Bengali Facebook classifiers[clarification needed] meant that corrective action on problematic posts was often neglected.
[39] On October 5, 2021, Haugen testified before the United States Senate Commerce Committee's Sub-Committee on Consumer Protection, Product Safety, and Data Security.
"[44][45] Haugen further discussed Myanmar and Ethiopia, stating Facebook is "literally fanning ethnic violence" when engagement-based ranking is deployed without functioning integrity and security systems.
[46] Haugen also indicated she is in communication with another U.S. congressional committee about issues related to espionage and disinformation,[47] and a reason she has not shared documents with the Federal Trade Commission is because she believes Facebook systems will "continue to be dangerous even if they're broken up.
I think most of us just don’t recognize the false picture of the company that is being painted",[50][51] and "We're committed to doing the best work we can, but at some level the right body to assess trade-offs between social equities is our democratically elected Congress.
[56] On November 18, 2021, a bipartisan group of state attorneys general announced a consumer protection investigation of Meta based on documents shared by Haugen.
[60] On October 21, 2021, Haugen met with the U.S. House Judiciary antitrust subcommittee chair David Cicilline and ranking member Ken Buck.
[64][65] In a nearly three-hour hearing, she urged the Parliament debating the Digital Services Act to mandate social media platforms to operate transparently and not to create loopholes that Big Tech could exploit.
[67] She emphasized how linguistically diverse Europe could force the platforms to take a systemic approach to safety, rather than focus only on content moderation and on major languages.
[69] She congratulated the EU lawmakers for the result and called for the European Commission and the member states to put a lot of effort into enforcing the DSA, so that it will not be "a dead letter".
[70] In June 2022, Politico reported that Haugen plans to establish a non-profit organization called "Beyond the Screen" to enhance awareness of the harms of social media.
[75] A review in The Washington Post by Bethany McLean states, "If all Haugen’s book did was present her whistleblowing case (the legal merits of which have yet to be decided), it might still be an important part of the ongoing chronicling of how we allowed social media's dangers to creep up on us.