MSNBC host to Elizabeth Warren: Should some Facebook officials face 'criminal investigations?'

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MSNBC host Mehdi Hasan asked Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., Sunday if Facebook officials should face "criminal investigations" for a variety of social ills.

Hasan cited his earlier interview with Facebook investor Roger McNamee, who has said the social media behemoth could be criminally liable for everything from price-fixing to complicity in human trafficking to the Jan. 6 Capitol riot.

"Mark Zuckerberg in the past has called you an existential threat to Facebook," Hasan said to Warren. "Is it time more people at Facebook face actual criminal investigations?"

Warren, who has long called for breaking up Big Tech giants like Facebook, didn't directly answer, saying the government had a "limited number of tools" to rein it in.

"One of them is regulation," she said. "One of them is enforcement of the anti-trust laws to break them up. And one of them is to make sure that we enforce current criminal laws. We need to be pursuing all three fronts at once. Facebook is such concentrated power that it is its own political influence, and we have to put a stop to this, and we're running out of time to do it.

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"I'm for using every tool in the toolbox where Facebook is concerned."

Facebook is under the microscope after whistleblower Frances Haugen blasted her former employer before Congress and on "60 Minutes." Haugen released documents showing what she called proof the company puts profits before user well-being through its algorithms. She also hit what she called its insufficient response to anti-democratic efforts by foreign entities, calling it a "national security issue."'

UNITED STATES - OCTOBER 5: Frances Haugen, a former Facebook employee, testifies during the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Subcommittee on Consumer Protection, Product Safety, and Data Security hearing titled Children's Online Safety-Facebook Whistleblower, in Russell Building on Tuesday, October 5, 2021. (Photo By Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images) ______ Mark Zuckerberg, chief executive officer and founder of Facebook Inc., speaks during a House Financial Services Committee hearing in Washington, D.C., U.S., on Wednesday, Oct. 23, 2019. Zuckerberg struggled to convince Congress of the merits of the company's plans for a cryptocurrency in light of all the other challenges the company has failed to solve. Photographer: Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg via Getty Images (Photo By Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images  |   Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

Democrats have railed against Facebook for insufficiently putting down what they deem misinformation on elections, coronavirus, and other issues.

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"The version of Facebook that exists today is tearing our societies apart and causing ethnic violence around the world," Haugen said.

The outspokenly left-wing Hasan sympathized with McNamee's call for criminal investigations into Facebook on Saturday, when the former Zuckerberg adviser said Facebook was implicated "effectively as an accessory to an insurrection" and faced "legal jeopardy."

"When you put it like that, Facebook does seem to have a lot of things to answer for," Hasan said, chuckling.

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Hasan also continued his disparagement Sunday of Sens. Joe Manchin, D-W. Va., and Kyrsten Sinema, D-Ariz., over their opposition to the $3.5-trillion Build Back Better package, asking Warren what was "moderate" about "allowing the planet to burn."