Facebook asks workers to preserve internal documents since 2016

Facebook has told employees to “preserve internal documents and communications since 2016” that pertain to its businesses because governments and legislative bodies have started inquiries into its operations, according to a company email sent on Tuesday night.

The move, known as a “legal hold”, follows intense media, legal and regulatory scrutiny over the social network’s harms.

Lawmakers and the public are up in arms after Frances Haugen, a former Facebook employee turned whistle-blower, provided thousands of internal documents to lawmakers and the media showing how much the company knew about some of its ill effects, such as spreading misinformation and exacerbating body image issues in some teenagers. Those files, known as the Facebook Papers, were initially published by The Wall Street Journal.