Instagram head Adam Mosseri agrees to testify before the Senate
2 min read
Instagram head Adam Mosseri agrees to testify before the Senate
Adam Mosseri, Instagram head, arranged to testify in front of the Senate panel in December. He will appear in a series of hearings about online protection for children that the consumer protection subcommittes hold during the December 6 week.
“He is a top person on Instagram, and the whole nation asks why Instagram and other technology platforms have created so many dangers and damage by encouraging toxic content to children with this very strong algorithm,” Senator Richard Blumenthal, who is the seat of the subcommittee , tell the New York Times.
Mosseri will testify after Revelation by Whistleblower Frances Haugen, a former Facebook product manager. Haugen said on the panel last month that the research conducted by Facebook was determined “rank-based involvement in Instagram could lead children from very harmless topics such as healthy recipes … for anorexia-promoting content in a very short time.” The previous month, Davis Antigone, Global Chief Safety for the Meter Instagram Company Meta, underestimated the latest report based on internal Facebook documents, which indicated that Instagram could negatively affect young mental health and young girls.
After Davis testified, Blumenthal wrote to CEO of Meta Mark Zuckerberg, asked him or Mosseri to testify. Blumenthal suggested in his letter to Zuckerberg that the company “gave a wrong or inaccurate testimony to me about efforts to hide research internally.”
This will mark the first time Mosseri testifies before the congress. Blumenthal plans to request Mosseri to commit to making the ranking algorithm and transparent Instagram recommendations, some so that experts can look into if and how the platform promotes potentially dangerous content. The senators noted that snap leaders, Tiktok and YouTube made similar commitments after they testified at the previous hearing. Blumenthal also said he would ask Mosseri about the Instagram recommendation system and how they could guide children “into a dangerous rabbit hole.”
A group of public state lawyers also investigated how Instagram affected teenagers. Global Meta Agres VP Nick Clegg recently announced that Instagram would encourage teenagers to “break” from the application and try to divert them from dangerous content.
