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Wednesday on Facebook published two internal research reports He talked about the photo-sharing app Instagram and downplayed its results as the company prepares for two congressional sessions next week focused on the effects of its products on children’s mental health.
Reports – “Teen Mental Health Deep Dive”, published internally in October 2019 and “Difficult Life MomentsPublished in November 2019, it was accompanied by annotations from Facebook that sought to contextualize the limitations of the research and penalized its own researchers for using imprecise language.
With a slide caption that read, “One in five teens say Instagram makes them feel worse, British girls the most negative,” Facebook wrote in its annotation that the research was not designed to suggest a causal link. application and well-being. The company said the headline highlights the negative effects but could be written “to note the positive or neutral impact of Instagram on users.”
Facebook released the research as it grappled again with questions about whether it is inherently harmful as a service. Article A social network released this month by The Wall Street Journal showed that Instagram knows many of the ailments it causes, including leading teenage girls to feel worse about their bodies and increased rates of anxiety and depression.
This has led to calls for further regulation of the social network by legislators and regulators. Following a renewed wave of criticism, Facebook said on Monday, Instagram pauses Kids development Service to be adapted for children 13 or younger.
Facebook said it submitted its internal research reports to Congress on Wednesday. On Thursday, Facebook’s head of global security, Antigone Davis, will testify before a Senate subcommittee on mental health and social media. Next week, an anonymous Facebook whistleblower will testify to lawmakers about the impact Facebook and Instagram have on young users.
In a keynote address to Thursday’s hearing, released late Wednesday, Senator Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee argued that Facebook “plans to attract younger users” despite knowing the mental health risks.
“Facebook knows that its services are actively harming its young users,” he said in prepared statements. “In 2019 and 2020, Facebook’s internal analysts conducted a series of deep dives into teen use of Instagram, revealing that ‘the aspects of Instagram intensify each other to create the perfect storm’.”
Facebook has aggressively tried to reshape his image this year, including using the News Feed to promote some pro-Facebook stories; distracting CEO Mark Zuckerberg from scandals; and reducing outsider access to internal data. The company also decided to apologize less, people familiar with the shift said.
Since the magazine’s articles were published, Facebook has also been hacked, posting several blog posts claiming parts are out of context or missing. On Sunday, the company released a slide “This research shows that Instagram is ‘toxic’ for teenage girls is absolutely untrue.”
Selective publishing has resulted in more calls from researchers and legislators to the company to publish full reports. On Wednesday, Facebook did so with annotations.
“We’ve added descriptions to each slide that provide more context because this type of research is designed to inform internal conversations, and the documentation was created and used for people who understand the limitations of research,” said Instagram spokesperson Liza Crenshaw.
In the reports, a slide’s title was “However, we make body image problems worse for 1 in 3 teenage girls.” Facebook’s annotation said the methodology was “not suitable for providing statistical estimates” and noted that the title of the slide was “myopic”. The company said the findings were only designed to represent the emotions of those surveyed, and not “the younger population of Instagram users in general.”
In the 66-slide “Young Mental Health Deep Dive” presentation, based on a face-to-face qualitative inquiry from 40 young people in the United States and England and online surveys of more than 2,500 young people, one statement questioned the definition of “mental”. health” presentation.
“’Mental health’ should not be confused with a clinical, formal, or academic definition,” the company wrote.
The title of another slide read, “Young people struggling with mental health say Instagram is making the situation worse.”
In response, Facebook’s annotation added, “The headline needs to be clarified as follows: ‘Young people who are less satisfied with life are more likely to say that Instagram is worsening their mental health or how they feel about themselves than teens who are satisfied with their lives.’ ”
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