Amid the Capitol riot, Facebook faced its own insurrection

By ALAN SUDERMAN and JOSHUA GOODMAN
Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — New internal documents provided by former Facebook employee-turned-whistleblower Frances Haugen provide a rare glimpse into how the company, after years under the microscope for the policing of its platform, appears to have simply stumbled into the Jan. 6 riot. For weeks, riot participants had vowed — on Facebook itself — to stop Congress from certifying Joe Biden’s election victory with little response from the company. Yet when the insurrection finally broke out, Facebook seemed as surprised as anyone else, leading employees to vent their frustration over what some saw as the company’s halting and often reversed response to rising U.S. extremism.