WASHINGTON (AFP) – US lawmakers pledged on Thursday to ask Facebook to address growing concerns over its platform’s impact on teens’ mental health, but a top executive assured the sites are already safe.
Senators slam social media giant Antigone Davis in an hour-long Capitol Hill hearing on reports that Facebook’s own research warns of harm the photo-sharing app Instagram could do to the well-being of teenage girls. Is.
“This research is a bombshell. It is powerful, amusing, exciting evidence that Facebook is aware of the harmful effects its site has on children and has concealed those facts and findings,” said Senator Richard Blumenthal.
Under questioning from Blumenthal and other senators, Davis repeatedly said a wall street journal The series chose parts of his study to give an unfairly dark vision of the company’s work.
She told lawmakers that a survey of teens on 12 serious issues such as anxiety, sadness and eating disorders showed that Instagram was generally helpful to them.
“On 11 out of 12 issues, teen girls who said they were struggling with those issues were more likely to say that Instagram was helping them, not making it worse,” Davis said.
Still, Blumenthal read aloud portions of the company’s documents that he said were leaked to lawmakers by a Facebook whistleblower who directly contradicted that.
Senator Richard Blumenthal (centre) speaks as Facebook Global Head of Safety Director, Antigone Davis, testifies remotely ahead of a hearing of the Senate Subcommittee on Consumer Protection, Product Safety and Data Security, which is based on Facebook, Instagram and Focusing on the safety of children online. Mental health impairment on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC, September 30, 2021. (Tom Brenner / Poole / AFP)
facebook whistleblower
“Substantial evidence suggests that experiences on Instagram and Facebook make body dissatisfaction worse,” he said, adding that the finding was company research, not a disgruntled worker complaint.
A Facebook whistleblower is set to testify before senators on Tuesday, but it was not immediately clear whether that person was also the source of the leaked documents.
The social media giant has faced an increasing backlash, including Thursday’s hearing, in the wake of the Journal’s report that it halted work on a plan to create a version of Instagram for children under the age of 13, sharply criticized Is.
Facebook argued that a specially designed platform would allow some parental controls in an online world already full of kids, but critics called it a cynical tactic to hook the youngest users .
Lawmakers on Thursday called on Facebook to release all of its research and pledge not to target children under the age of 13.
“Miss Davis Are you committed that Facebook will not launch any platform targeting 12 children and will include features … that allow children to measure popularity?” asked Senator Ed Markey.
FILE – In this September 16, 2017 file photo, a person uses a smart phone (AP Photo)
Davis sidestepped his query, saying instead that the company’s products “stay rich” by allowing teens to connect with friends and family.
He said Facebook was looking for ways to share more of its findings, but had “privacy considerations” to keep in mind.
On Wednesday, the company released a heavily annotated version of two presentations on its own research but it was unclear what percentage of their internal studies they represent.
The company has been under constant pressure to avoid becoming a platform where misinformation, hate and child-harming material can spread.
Legislators have struggled to pass new rules that would update online safety in decades-old laws drafted long before social media even existed.