The Lacuna Project

lacuna (n.) a gap in a record where something should be

Independent research. Not affiliated with any government, agency, or company.

Agency

Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation

Findings that rest on exhibits naming this entity

  • POL-3.3: Frances Haugen, a former Facebook product manager, told a Senate subcommittee in a written statement of 4 October 2021 that the company's choices produced "a system that amplifies division, extremism, and polarization" and that its internal research confirmed the problems. Facebook's vice president of integrity had said in May 2020 that the company took steps against polarization, some at a cost to revenue, and Zuckerberg said on 5 October 2021 that the profit-over-safety claim was untrue.
  • POL-3.4: News reports of internal Facebook documents state that staff warned in 2018 and 2019 that ranking changes rewarded outrage and that company leaders declined some proposed changes. Facebook disputes these accounts.
  • INF-4.1: FBI, DHS and ODNI officials met regularly with platform staff about election content from 2017 and 2018, under the Trump administration, and the meetings continued through the 2022 midterms under the Biden administration.
  • INF-4.3: CISA's head of its misinformation team testified that CISA forwarded election officials' reports about posts to platforms in the 2020 election, and the record differs on whether it did so in 2022. The district court wrote in 2023 that no evidence produced in the case tied the Trump administration to the switchboarding, and a 2025 Senate Commerce majority report dates DHS's election-disinformation task force to March 2018.
  • INF-4.5: Meta (26 August 2024) and Alphabet (23 September 2025) each wrote to the House Judiciary Committee that senior Biden administration officials pressed them in 2021 over COVID-19 content, and each wrote that the company made its own decisions on removal and enforcement.

Exhibits naming this entity

  • Exhibit 716 4 October 2021. Frances Haugen (U.S. Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation): Statement of Frances Haugen, Senate Commerce Subcommittee on Consumer Protection, Product Safety, and Data Security
  • Exhibit 1136 September 2025. U.S. Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation (Chairman Ted Cruz, majority): The Mechanics of Government Censorship: How the Biden Administration Converted the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency into the Thought Police (report)
  • Exhibit 1137 29 October 2025. Meta Platforms, Inc. (written testimony): Testimony of Neil Potts, Vice President, Public Policy, Meta Platforms Inc., before the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation ("Shut Your App ... Part II")