Another Facebook official just spent hours questioning members of Congress about the company’s policies and whether it’s doing enough to protect some of its most vulnerable users and, again, Facebook’s boss, now security leader Antigone Davis, appeared to do so. maximum productivity to dodge the most difficult questions.
But the last hearing on teen intellectual health, which came here as a reaction to WSJ reports, others from past hearings In fact, thanks to a whistleblower, members of the Senate Commerce Committee now have access to thousands of internal documents written through the company itself. Researchers.
The documents, some of which have been made public, paint a very different picture of Facebook and Instagram’s understanding of the effect of their facilities on teens’ intellectual aptitude compared to what they have portrayed publicly. lawmakers, which makes the findings even harder for Facebook to exploit. The revelations have already forced Facebook to “pause” the paintings on an Instagram Kids app.
“We now have a deep understanding of Facebook’s relentless crusade to recruit and exploit young users,” Sen. Richard Blumenthal said at the start of the hearing. “We now know, while Facebook publicly denies that Instagram is deeply destructive to teens, in private, Facebook, researchers and experts have sounded the alarm for years. “
This has led Facebook into the awkward position of reviewing to downplay the importance of its own research. “This is not an explosive investigation,” Davis repeated several times during the hearing. A day earlier, Facebook published heavily annotated versions of two of the documents. , with notes that also attempted their own findings. The documents, which were just two of the “thousands” Blumenthal said he now had access to, used words like “short-sighted” and “sensational” to downplay findings such as the fact that Instagram worsens “the body photographs of 1 in 3 teens. “
The tactic was not well received in the Senate on Thursday. “This study is a bombshell,” Blumenthal said. This is powerful, captivating and desirable evidence that Facebook knows the destructive effects it has on children and that it has concealed those facts and discoveries. “
As in past hearings, there were moments of grievances. At one point, Blumenthal asked if Facebook would “commit to ending the finsta,” a reference to sub-accounts used during teens to remain anonymous. This forced Davis to awkwardly explain that this way. . . So-called “finstas” are not an official feature of Instagram. At some other point, Senator Ted Cruz asked Davis to explain why he was not appearing at the user’s hearing (he cited COVID-19 protocols).
But even in those moments, it was hard to forget the importance of those issues. It might seem obvious, however, kids and teens are incredibly vital to the company, which is a constant competition like TikTok and Snapchat for this demographic. so a former worker who worked at Messenger Kids recently said that “losing the teenage audience was considered an ‘existential threat'” to Facebook.
What’s worse for Facebook, there’s likely to be more bombs to come. The whistleblower who provided the documents to the Journal and lawmakers appears on 60 Minutes Sunday night and will testify at a separate Commerce Committee hearing next week. Facebook executives can dodge questions and insist that their researchers’ findings have been misinterpreted, it will be much harder to refute who has cared much in this work.
Some senators have warned that there will be more to come at the next hearing. Senator Ray Luján asked Davis if “Facebook has ever tested an update on its platform increases the propensity of an individual or user organization to post violent or hateful language. “he said it was not his “area of expertise. “
“We may get more answers to this one next week,” he said.