The SEC and the Facebook Papers
The Lawfare Podcast
The Lawfare Institute
4.7 • 6.4K Ratings
🗓️ 28 October 2021
⏱️ 54 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
This week on Arbiters of Truth, our series on the online information ecosystem, we’re talking about a subject that doesn’t come up much on the Lawfare Podcast: the Securities and Exchange Commission. Facebook whistleblower Frances Haugen has made waves with her congressional testimony and the many damaging news stories being reported about Facebook based on the documents she released. But before these documents became the Facebook Papers, Haugen also handed them to the SEC as part of a whistleblower complaint against the company. So, we thought we should dig into what that actually means.
What is the likelihood that Haugen’s SEC filings turn into an investigation into the company? Should Facebook be worried? Evelyn Douek and Quinta Jurecic discussed these questions with Jacob Frenkel, who spent years at the SEC and is now the chair of government investigations and securities enforcement at the law firm Dickinson Wright. He explained how to understand the SEC’s role in cases like these, why whistleblowers like Haugen file complaints with the SEC, and why he thinks it’s unlikely that the agency will investigate Facebook based on Haugen’s disclosures.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | The following podcast contains advertising. |
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| 0:14.0 | That's patreon.com slash law fair. |
| 0:18.0 | Also, check out LawFair's other podcast offerings, |
| 0:22.0 | rational security, chatter, law fair no bull, and the aftermath. |
| 0:29.0 | The SC Broadcast against Facebook in 2019 that related to its disclosures |
| 0:41.0 | and dealing with describing risks as a hypothetical impact something had occurred. |
| 0:46.0 | But again, they're dealt with user data having in fact been misused. |
| 0:52.0 | As opposed to being something more around social policy. |
| 0:56.0 | No, I'm hard pressed to believe that with the 2019 case that the SCC would bring a case here as well. |
| 1:05.0 | I'm Quintet Jurassic and this is the LawFair podcast, October 28th, 2021. |
| 1:12.0 | Today we're bringing you another episode of Arbitus of Truth, |
| 1:16.0 | our series on the online information ecosystem. |
| 1:19.0 | And we're talking about a subject that doesn't come up much on the LawFair podcast. |
| 1:24.0 | The Securities and Exchange Commission. |
| 1:27.0 | Facebook whistleblower Frances Halgann has made waves with her congressional testimony |
| 1:31.0 | and the many damaging news stories being reported about Facebook based on the documents she released. |
| 1:37.0 | But before those documents became the Facebook papers, Halgann also handed them to the SCC |
| 1:43.0 | as part of a whistleblower complaint against the company. |
| 1:46.0 | So we thought we should dig in to what that actually means. |
| 1:50.0 | What's the likelihood that Halgann's SCC filings turn into an investigation into the company? |
... |
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