Frances Haugen wants to train lawyers to fight Facebook

Photo by Amanda Stronza/Getty Images for SXSW

According to a report from Politico, the man who blew the whistle on Facebook is looking to start a non-profit to hold companies accountable.

The organization plans to focus on educating lawyers who could potentially be going up against social media companies, incentivizing investors to look into how socially responsible a tech company is before giving it money, and giving regulators and researchers. Haugen is working with two other people on a project that he is hoping to raise $5 million for. According to the report, she has received funding from some people.

When lawyers are involved with class-action lawsuits against social media giants, Beyond the Screen can make sure they know what to look for. She wants to create a metric that investors can use to compare how well companies do at keeping their users safe, potentially giving them a way to justify why they're selling from a company that may be good for business, but bad for society

A mock social network can be used to demonstrate and test how platforms work. The idea is that a simulation platform could help people better understand how companies do things, without those companies having to be involved, that could be a boon for researchers who have struggled in the past with Facebook and others feeding them inaccurate data

The idea of building an open-sourced social network for students of all ages to learn and experiment on is what Haugen told Vogue about last year. Given the current state of the market, it seems like it could be unfortunate that Haugen was invested in the digital currency.

Her goal is to get to a point where this type of organization isn't necessary and she hopes she's not relevant anymore. It might be a long while before that happens. While she pushes for legislation in the US and EU, she wants Beyond the Screen to focus on the rest of the world as well. It could be a monumental effort to push for change in places where a lot of groundwork has not been completed.