By Thomas Escritt

BERLIN, (Reuters) – Frances Haugen (NASDAQ: Facebook) whistleblower welcomed Facebook’s announcement of facial recognition being scrapped. But she urged tight government oversight to ensure that the social media network kept its promises.

Facebook announced the change on Tuesday partly due to increased scrutiny by regulators and lawmakers over abuses of its platforms and user safety. Faceprinting has been criticized by activists as a grave threat to privacy.

“I strongly encourage government oversight,” Haugen said.

She asked, “When they claim we have got rid of that, what exactly does it actually mean?” To ensure that they follow through, there needs to be greater transparency in how operations are run.

Before meeting with Germany’s justice Minister, the whistleblower revealed a torrent of documents about Facebook’s inner workings. He said that Britain’s and the European Union’s “principles-based” regulation is more effective in restricting technology companies, than the stricter rules-based United States approach.

Europe had an important role in making sure Facebook monitors content written in other languages.

Facebook was criticised for not taking action against hate speech in language languages from Burmese and Greek, even though it increased its surveillance of English-language posts following the attack on the U.S. Capitol.

She said that Europe, a linguistically diverse country like Europe could be an advocate for everyone around the globe who doesn’t know English. Facebook is radically underinvested on safety and security systems in all other languages than English.