Facebook is in the hot seat again.<\/p>\n
The Wall Street Journal published a powerful multi-part series on the company this week, <\/a>drawing from internal documents on everything from the company\u2019s secretive practice of whitelisting celebrities<\/a> to its knowledge that Instagram is taking a serious toll on the mental health of teen girls<\/a>.<\/p>\n The flurry of investigative pieces makes it clear that what Facebook says in public doesn\u2019t always reflect the company\u2019s knowledge on known issues behind the scenes. The revelations still managed to shock even though Facebook has been playing dumb about the various social ills it has sown for years. (Remember when Mark Zuckerberg dismissed the notion that Facebook influenced the 2016 election as \u201ccrazy<\/a>?\u201d) Facebook\u2019s longstanding PR playbook is to hide its dangers, denying knowledge of its darker impacts on society publicly, even as research spells them out internally.<\/p>\n That\u2019s all well and good until someone gets ahold of the internal research.<\/p>\n One of the biggest revelations from the WSJ\u2019s report:<\/a> The company knows that Instagram poses serious dangers to mental health in teenage girls. An internal research slide from 2019 acknowledged that \u201cWe make body image issues worse for one in three teen girls\u201d \u2014 a shocking admission for a company charging ahead with plans to expand<\/a> to even younger and more vulnerable age groups.<\/p>\n As recently as May, Instagram\u2019s Adam Mosseri dismissed concerns around the app\u2019s negative impact on teens as \u201cquite small.\u201d<\/p>\n But internally, the picture told a different story. According to the WSJ, from 2019 to 2021, the company conducted a thorough deep dive into teen mental health, including online surveys, diary studies, focus groups and large-scale questionnaires.<\/p>\n According to one internal slide, the findings showed that 32% of teenage girls reported that Instagram made them have a worse body image. Of research participants who experienced suicidal thoughts, 13% of British teens and 6% of American teens directly linked their interest in killing themselves to Instagram.<\/p>\n \u201cTeens blame Instagram for increases in the rate of anxiety and depression,\u201d another internal slide stated. \u201cThis reaction was unprompted and consistent across all groups.\u201d<\/p>\n Following the WSJ report, Senators Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) and Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) announced a probe<\/a> into Facebook\u2019s lack of transparency around internal research showing that Instagram poses serious and even lethal danger to teens. The Senate Subcommittee on Consumer Protection, Product Safety, and Data Security will launch the investigation.<\/p>\n \u201cWe are in touch with a Facebook whistleblower and will use every resource at our disposal to investigate what Facebook knew and when they knew it \u2013 including seeking further documents and pursuing witness testimony,\u201d Senators Blackburn and Blumenthal wrote. \u201cThe Wall Street Journal\u2019s blockbuster reporting may only be the tip of the iceberg.\u201d<\/p>\n Blackburn and Blumenthal weren\u2019t the only U.S. lawmakers alarmed by the new report. Sen. Ed Markey (D-MA), Rep. Kathy Castor (D-FL), and Lori Trahan (D-MA) sent Facebook their own letter<\/a> demanding that the company walk away from its plan to launch Instagram for kids. \u201cChildren and teens are uniquely vulnerable populations online, and these findings paint a clear and devastating picture of Instagram as an app that poses significant threats to young people\u2019s wellbeing,\u201d the lawmakers wrote.<\/p>\n Big Tech has become the new Big Tobacco. <\/p>\n Facebook is lying about how their product harms teens. https:\/\/t.co\/85oo3B9oO0<\/a><\/p>\n \u2014 Rep. Ken Buck (@RepKenBuck) September 14, 2021<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n Facebook gobbled up Instagram because they were too chicken to compete against them fair square for younger users. When there\u2019s one big game in town, there\u2019s a whole lot less pressure to offer the best service\u2014or do the least damage. #BreakUpBigTech<\/a>https:\/\/t.co\/mIyHQ2iPs8<\/a><\/p>\n \u2014 Elizabeth Warren (@ewarren) September 16, 2021<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n In May, a group of 44 state attorneys general wrote to Instagram to encourage the company to abandon its plans to bring Instagram to kids under the age of 13. \u201cIt appears that Facebook is not responding to a need, but instead creating one, as this platform appeals primarily to children who otherwise do not or would not have an Instagram account,\u201d the group of attorneys general wrote. They warned that an Instagram for kids would be \u201charmful for myriad reasons.\u201d<\/p>\n In April, a collection of the same Democratic lawmakers expressed \u201cserious concerns\u201d<\/a> about Instagram\u2019s potential impact on the well-being of young users. That same month, a\u00a0coalition of consumer advocacy organizations also demanded that the company reconsider<\/a> launching a version of Instagram for kids.<\/p>\n According to the documents obtained by the WSJ, all of those concerns look extremely valid. In spite of extensive internal research and their deeply troubling findings, Facebook has downplayed its knowledge publicly, even as regulators regularly pressed the company for what it really knows.<\/p>\n Instagram\u2019s Mosseri may have made matters worse Thursday when he made a less than flattering analogy between social media platforms and vehicles<\/a>. \u201cWe know that more people die than would otherwise because of car accidents, but by and large, cars create way more value in the world than they destroy,\u201d Mosseri told Peter Kafka on Recode\u2019s media podcast<\/a>. \u201cAnd I think social media is similar.\u201d<\/p>\n Mosseri dismissed any comparison between social media and drugs or cigarettes in spite of social media\u2019s well-researched addictive effects, likening social platforms to the auto industry instead. Naturally, the company\u2019s many critics jumped on the car comparison, pointing to their widespread lethality and the fact that the auto industry is heavily regulated \u2014 unlike social media.<\/p>\n\n
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