Social media safety in US Senate hearing
The discussion about Facebook’s controversial study on Instagram and teenagers continues – now in the US senate. At a Senate committee hearing, Instagram’s CEO Adam Mosseri was quoted saying the app’s effects on teenagers’ mental health were “quite small”. The hearing on social media and safe will continue next week.
“We conduct this research, to make our platform better, to minimise the bad and maximise the good and to proactively identify where we can improve”, Facebook’s global head of safety, Antigone Davis, said.
“We want our platforms to be a place for meaningful interactions with friends and family and we cannot achieve that goal if people do not feel safe.”
The Wall Street Journal in a series of articles about the social media company accused it of hiding a study showing that Instagram could harm teenagers’ wellbeing and have negative effect on body image and self-esteem.
Facebook attacked the newspaper in a blog post with head of research Pratiti Raychoudhury saying:
“It is simply not accurate that this research demonstrates Instagram is ‘toxic’ for teen girls. The research actually demonstrated that many teens we heard from feel that using Instagram helps them when they are struggling with the kinds of hard moments and issues teenagers have always faced.”
Richard Blumenthal, chair of the Senate committee, said Facebook in August had denied it was aware of any research that showed a negative correlation.
“We know it chooses the growth of its products over the well-being of our children,” he said.
After many critical comments, Facebook just days prior to the Senate hearing announced it has paused its scheduled Instagram Kids for users aged under 13. It had been expected to launch later this year.
The Senate committee has announced that hearings on social media and safety will continue next week.
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