Facebook regularly faces accusations that it prioritizes its financial bottom line over the safety of its users. However, those criticisms have a lot more bite when they come from people who used to work at the highest levels of the company itself. That’s what happened this week when a former Facebook vice president testified before a Senate panel to implore lawmakers to rein in the social media giant.

According to former VP Brian Boland, Facebook has “failed to address” the harm it can cause, and it will never change its ways unless forced to by regulators. He also blamed the company’s profit-driven motives for allowing misinformation and extremism to run rampant, and urged lawmakers to compel Facebook to be more transparent.

“Today you don’t know what’s happening with the companies, you have to trust them,” Boland told the panel of lawmakers. “I lost my trust with the companies with what they were doing and what Meta was doing. We should move beyond trust to helping researchers and journalists understand the platforms better.”

Lawmakers have made noise for years about firmly regulating Facebook, but it has yet to come to pass. Hopefully more testimony from former insiders like Boland can finally change that.

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