Facebook has struggled for months to contain the fallout after whistleblower Frances Haugen emerged late last year with a series of devastating leaks about the company’s internal practices. And now, she has created an even bigger potential problem for her former employer, filing complaints with the Security and Exchange Commission (SEC) alleging that Facebook misled investors about misinformation on its platform.

According to the complaints, Facebook allowed misinformation to spread like wildfire on its platforms without a strong plan to contain it. However, the company’s leaders allegedly told investors that they had the problem under control. This could trigger a lot of potential trouble for Facebook, including a government investigation and shareholders bailing on the company. Some legal experts also see it as a creative way to hold the social media giant accountable for its missteps without requiring legislation.

“You cannot pass a law in the U.S. banning disinformation,” Stanford Law School professor Nathaniel Persily told The Washington Post. “So what can you do? You can hold the platforms accountable to promises they make. Those promises could be made to users, to the government, to shareholders.”

Facebook has tried desperately to reframe the conversation over the past several months, going so far as to rebrand itself as Meta. However, it’s clear that no matter what the company does, it can’t outrun its past mistakes — and it may have to answer for this particular one soon.

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