Lotte Rubæk, a psychologist who advises Meta on suicide prevention and self-harm, quits, accusing Meta of “turning a blind eye” to harmful content on Instagram
Miranda Bryant / The Guardian : Mastodon: @CatherineFlick@mastodon.me.uk . X: @thekenyeung and @bw400cn LinkedIn: Cheryl Calverley and Jonathan Andrew, PhD Mastodon: Prof. Catherine Flick / @CatherineFlick@mastodon.me.uk : This is precisely the reason I won't even have unofficial “chats” with Meta despite having been asked to - they don't want to actually listen and instead want to ethics wash what they do by having these toothless committees. https://www.theguardian.com/ ... X: Ken Yeung / @thekenyeung : Danish psychologist Lotte Rubæk, who has been on Meta's global expert group advising the company on suicide prevention and self-harm for more than three years, left the company over Instagram's failure to remove such harmful images. https://www.theguardian.com/ ... Anthony Polson / @bw400cn : Why aren't you resigning, @nickclegg? Not even saying sorry, which is your speciality? 🤔 . https://www.theguardian.com/ ... LinkedIn: Cheryl Calverley : The monetisation of addiction-by-design, fuelled by trauma bait. Every other industry that takes its profit from vulnerable customers adheres … Jonathan Andrew, PhD : When will Meta face up to its responsibilities? Psychologist Lotte Rubæk, a member of Meta's global expert group for over 3 years …
Context & Ripple Effects
Rubæk’s departure follows Meta’s 2022 decision to disband its Responsible Innovation team, a prior change that raised questions about how product-safety concerns would be carried into company decision-making.
The resignation puts an external adviser’s credibility behind a narrower but consequential test of platform governance: whether advice on self-harm and suicide is reflected in Instagram’s enforcement against harmful imagery.
First-order effects
- Meta loses a long-serving specialist adviser to its suicide-prevention and self-harm group, while Rubæk’s public allegation increases scrutiny of Instagram’s handling of the content she identified.
- For users exposed to self-harm and suicide-related material, the dispute focuses immediate attention on whether Instagram removes harmful images consistently enough.
Second-order effects
- Meta may face pressure to demonstrate how outside safety advice reaches moderation and product teams, rather than relying on the existence of an expert group as evidence of oversight.
- Other external advisers and safety advocates gain a concrete example for challenging advisory arrangements whose recommendations and follow-through are not visible.
Third-order effects
- If expert groups lack a clear route to influence enforcement, platforms’ safety governance will increasingly be judged by auditable outcomes rather than by the presence of advisory bodies.
- The episode reinforces a broader tension between centralized platform control and internal structures created to address product harms; resolving it may require clearer accountability for how safety concerns are acted on.
The trend: Platform-safety governance is shifting from advisory commitments toward demands for demonstrable, reviewable enforcement outcomes.