Revelations in a report by The Wall Street Journal have set off a wave of anger from lawmakers, critics of Big Tech, child-development experts and parents.
WASHINGTON — Senators fired a barrage of criticism Thursday at a Facebook executive over the social-networking giant’s handling of internal research on how its Instagram photo-sharing platform can harm teens. The lawmakers accused Facebook of concealing the negative findings about Instagram and demanded a commitment from the company to make changes. During testimony before a Senate Commerce subcommittee, Antigone Davis, Facebook’s head of global safety, defended Instagram’s efforts to protect young people using its platform. She disputed the way a recent newspaper story describes what the research shows. “We care deeply about the safety and security of the people on our platform,” Davis said. “We take the issue very seriously.… We have put in place multiple protections to create safe and age-appropriate experiences for people between the ages of 13 and 17.” Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., the subcommittee chairman, wasn’t convinced. “I don’t understand how you can deny that Instagram is exploiting young users for its own profit,” he told Davis. The panel is examining Facebook’s use of information from its own researchers that could indicate potential harm for some of its young users, especially girls, while it publicly downplayed the negative impacts. For some of the Instagram-devoted teens, the peer pressure generated by the visually focused app led to mental-health and body-image problems, and in some cases, eating disorders and suicidal thoughts, the research showed. The revelations in a report by The Wall Street Journal, based on internal research leaked by a whistleblower at Facebook, have set off a wave of anger from lawmakers, critics of Big Tech, child-development experts and parents. Comparisons to the tobacco industry’s coverups of cigarettes’ harmful effects abounded in a session that united senators of both parties in criticism of the giant social network and Instagram, the photo-sharing juggernaut valued at around $100 billion that Facebook has owned since 2012.
