US: Authorities investigate effects of Instagram on young people

A group of United States attorneys general launched an investigation into the photo-sharing social network Instagram and its effects on children and young adults, claiming that its parent company Facebook, which recently changed its name to Meta Platforms, ignored an internal investigation into the physical and mental health hazards it posed to young people.

The investigation is led by a bipartisan coalition of attorneys general from California, Florida, Kentucky, Massachusetts, Nebraska, New Jersey, Tennessee and Vermont.

The investigation comes after damaging news reports were released, based on the company’s own investigation that found the company knew about the harm Instagram can cause to teenagers, particularly girls, in regards to mental health and body image problems, as reported by El Nuevo Herald.

On the other hand, Meta’s spokeswoman, Liza Crenshaw, said in a statement that the accusations were “false” and said they show a profound misunderstanding of the facts.

Mark Zuckerberg’s companies have been in the eye of the hurricane in recent months because a former employee indicated that the company generated content that was harmful to minors.

In addition, Frances Haugen, who was a product manager on the social network team, indicated that if they change the algorithm to be more secure, people will spend less time on the site, click on fewer ads and earn less money.

Fiscales de EU investigan efectos de Instagram en salud física y mental de jóveneshttps://t.co/wLgslaby95 pic.twitter.com/i1Blauck7l

— SinEmbargo (@SinEmbargoMX) November 19, 2021

Haugen conducted an interview with the 60 Minutes program, where he denounced the practices of the social network in terms of security, where he assured that “the version of Facebook that exists today is destroying our societies and causing ethnic violence throughout the world.”

 

In addition, he explained that “there were conflicts of interest between what was good for the public and what was good for Facebook. And Facebook, time and time again, chose to optimize for its own interests, like making more money. ”

 

“Facebook has realized that if they change the algorithm to be more secure, people will spend less time on the site, click on fewer ads and make less money,” he added.