'60 Minutes' to air whistleblower alleging Facebook relaxed safeguards before Jan 6 attack: report

The CBS News program "60 Minutes" released a tease on Saturday of a yet-to-air Scott Pelley interview with a Facebook whistleblower who reportedly has thousands of pages of documents.

Also on Saturday, The New York Timesreported that Facebook was "bracing for new accusations over the weekend from the whistle-blower and said in a memo that it was preparing to mount a vigorous defense."

"The whistle-blower, whose identity has not been publicly disclosed, planned to accuse the company of relaxing its security safeguards for the 2020 election too soon after Election Day, which then led it to be used in the storming of the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, according to the internal memo obtained by The New York Times. The whistle-blower planned to discuss the allegations on '60 Minutes' on Sunday, the memo said, and was also set to say that Facebook had contributed to political polarization in the United States," the newspaper reported.

The "60 Minutes" interview is set to air Sunday evening.

"Facebook has been in an uproar for weeks because of the whistle-blower, who has shared thousands of pages of company documents with lawmakers and The Wall Street Journal.The Journal has published a series of articles based on the documents, which show that Facebook knew how its apps and services could cause harm, including worsening body image issues among teenage girls using Instagram," The Times reported. "Facebook anticipated more allegations during the whistle-blower's "60 Minutes" interview, according to the memo. The whistle-blower, who plans to reveal her identity during the interview, was set to say that Facebook had turned off some of its safety measures around the election — such as limits on live video — too soon after Election Day, the memo said. That allowed for misinformation to flood the platform and for groups to congregate online and plan the Jan. 6 storming of the Capitol building."