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Lawmakers on both sides and congressional chambers are demanding answers on Facebook about how their services affect the mental health of teens and children.
The questions come as a result of a Wall Street Journal report that found Tuesday that Facebook’s internal studies had determined that its Instagram social network had a significant negative impact on teens.
The report revealed Facebook’s awareness of this impact, including an internal presentation that said 32% of teenage girls said Instagram made them feel even worse when they felt bad about their body.
Instagram’s head of public policy, Karina Newton, responded to the report in a blog post, saying the company is looking for ways to target users to different types of content, rather than focusing on more body image-focused publications that may lead to negative self-comparisons. .
Now, a group of Democrats in both houses of Congress are asking for answers from Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg in a letter dated Wednesday. In addition, the leaders of the Senate Commerce Consumer Protection Subcommittee, Sens. Marsha Blackburn, R-Ten., And Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., Announced an investigation on Facebook about the allegations.
Senators said Tuesday they are “in contact with a Facebook whistleblower and will use all the resources at our disposal to investigate what Facebook knew and when they knew, including searching for more documents and searching for witnesses.”
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg talks about Instagram during a press conference at Facebook headquarters.
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In his letter to Zuckerberg, Sen. Ed Markey, D-Mass., And representatives of Kathy Castor, D-Florida, and Lori Trahan, D-Mass., Asked Facebook to abandon its plans to release a version. Instagram for kids. All three lawmakers have been vocal advocates for online privacy and child health protection and have previously been critical of Facebook’s exploration of this platform.
Lawmakers also asked in the letter whether Zuckerberg had reviewed internal studies on the impact of the mental health of Instagram children referred to in the journal’s report. They called for an update on Facebook’s plans for a youth-focused platform and for conducting internal and external assignments on the mental health of their children and teens.
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