Whistleblower Frances Haugen urged US MPs on Wednesday to act quickly to force Facebook to change its practices and control its abuses.

Since it was publicly revealed in early October, the former employee of the social network has testified before parliamentarians in several countries, in the United States but also in the United Kingdom and France, as well as in the European Parliament.

The engineer who left Facebook in May, on each occasion, has portrayed her former employer as a group overwhelmed by its own influence but also reluctant to change algorithms and recommendations if it risked reducing traffic to the social network.

On Wednesday, before the House of Representatives subcommittee on technology and communications, Frances Haugen called on elected officials to quickly reform the legal framework for social media.

“You have a once-in-a-generation opportunity to create new rules for our online world,” he explained. “Facebook wants to see you involved in too long a debate on the details of the different legislative approaches. Please don’t fall into this trap. Time matters.”

Frances Haugen’s hearing is part of a possible reform of article 230, a law that excludes the responsibility of websites for content published by third parties on these platforms.

Several bills have been introduced to reform these provisions, but while they agree on the need for change, Democrats and Republicans are not aligned on the terms.

The former want, in general, to force the site operators to better control the content, while the Republicans want to guarantee freedom of expression and limit the interventions of the platform.

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