Instagram on Tuesday tightened protections for teens on the eve of a Senate hearing about whether it is “toxic” for young users.
December 7,2021 Instagram on Tuesday tightened protections for teens on the eve of a Senate hearing about whether it is “toxic” for young users. “Every day I see the positive impact that Instagram has for young people everywhere,” chief executive Adam Mosseri said in a post. “I want to make sure that it stays that way, which means above all keeping them safe on Instagram.” Instagram’s parent company Meta, which also oversees Facebook, is battling a serious reputational crisis after a whistleblower leaked reams of internal documents showing executives knew of their sites’ risks for teens’ well-being, prompting a renewed US push for regulation. Mosseri is to testify Wednesday at a Senate committee hearing titled “Protecting Kids Online: Instagram and Reforms for Young Users.” “After bombshell reports about Instagram’s toxic impacts, we want to hear straight from the company’s leadership why it uses powerful algorithms that push poisonous content to children driving them down rabbit holes to dark places, and what it will do to make its platform safer,” said Senator Richard Blumenthal, a Democrat.
