Discussion

• @mosseri @mosseri on x

  We're pausing “Instagram Kids”, although we believe building it is the right thing to do. More here: https://about.instagram.com/ ...

• @todayshow @todayshow on x

  “I still firmly believe that it's a good thing to build a version of Instagram that's designed to be safe for tweens.” - Adam @Mosseri, head of Instagram https://twitter.com/...

• @oliviasolon Olivia Solon on x

  Instagram head @mosseri just announced Facebook is stopping work on Instagram Kids It's something child safety groups have been demanding for months https://www.nbcnews.com/...

• @borzou Borzou Daragahi on x

  Mark Zuckerberg has known for years that Instagram was harmful to teenaged women. But it a media expose of leaked documents for him to trot out one of his bootlickers to announce plans to roll out Instagram for kids would be halted https://www.wsj.com/...

• @repkenbuck Rep. Ken Buck on x

  Pausing Instagram kids is not enough. They need to abolish the program completely. Facebook knows it is toxic for our kids, they simply don't care. https://www.wsj.com/...

• @todayshow @todayshow on x

  Watch @craigmelvin's full interview with Adam @Mosseri, head of Instagram, who says that a version of Instagram for kids has been put on hold amid reports that the company had internal research showing its popular app may be harmful to the mental health of teenage girls. https://…

• @sm Sara Mauskopf on x

  wait @mosseri you were seriously building an Instagram for 10 year old girls? Do you have daughters? Do you have any mothers of ~10 year old girls on your team? https://twitter.com/...

• @brandyljensen Brandy Jensen on x

  we live in such sinister times https://twitter.com/...

• @shiraovide Shira Ovide on x

  The best thing about a version of Instagram for preteens is that it acknowledged the reality that kids under 13 use Instagram already. The worst thing was that Instagram for kids came from Facebook. “There's a high cost to a bad reputation,” as Uber's CEO once said. https://twitt…

• @stevekovach Steve Kovach on x

  I'm surprised FB didn't double down and continue making Instagram for kids after spending weeks defending itself over the WSJ series the way it has. https://twitter.com/...

• @todayshow @todayshow on x

  “If anybody leaves using Instagram feeling worse about themselves, that's an important issue that we need to take seriously and that we need to figure out how to address.” -Adam @Mosseri, head of Instagram, on body image issues for teens https://twitter.com/...

• @brandyzadrozny Brandy Zadrozny on x

  Mosseri seems to frame this as a future with only two options: one where kids and teens use the existing Insta which has proven not great for their mental health and safety OR one where they use a new Insta “kids” version. https://twitter.com/...

• @mosseri @mosseri on x

  I have to believe parents would prefer the option for their children to use an age-appropriate version of Instagram - that gives them oversight - than the alternative. But I'm not here to downplay their concerns, we have to get this right.

• @oliviasolon Olivia Solon on x

  Excited to see how Facebook will square the “actually, our research shows that Instagram is good for teens” message with this announcement

• @moorehn Heidi N. Moore on x

  Just saw that the head of Instagram has “married up” in his bio, suddenly it makes sense why the platform has Pivoted to Insecurity.

• @kkomaitis @kkomaitis on x

  This 👇 was from the beginning a very, unbelievably, astonishingly stupid idea! It should not be paused but terminated! #teens #instagram #Facebook https://about.instagram.com/ ...

• @viacristiano Cristiano Lima on x

  Facebook announces plans for controversial project. Project faces intense scrutiny from policymakers. Facebook halts project temporarily. The circle of life for FB products https://twitter.com/...

• @mosseri @mosseri on x

  This experience was never meant for kids. We were designing an experience for tweens (10-12yo), and it was never going to be the same as Instagram today. Parents approve tween accounts and have oversight over who they follow, who follows them, who messages them, time spent etc.

• @mosseri @mosseri on x

  Us pausing doesn't change the status quo. U13s are getting phones, misrepresenting their age, and downloading 13+ apps. YouTube and TikTok saw this happening and made u13 products, we were doing the same.

• @mosseri @mosseri on x

  We'll continue all the work we do to keep teens safe. We've spent a lot of time on bullying, social comparison, and age-appropriate features like default private accounts for u18s. But we're doing more, like building new features like “Nudges” and “Take a Break”. More to come.

• @mosseri @mosseri on x

  While we stand by the need to develop this experience, we've decided to pause to give us time to work with parents, experts, policymakers and regulators, to listen to their concerns, and to demonstrate the value and importance of this project for younger teens online today.

• @viacristiano Cristiano Lima on x

  Facebook is slated to testify before the Senate this week, where many lawmakers have called on it to abandon Instagram Kids altogether https://twitter.com/...

• @katienotopoulos Katie Notopoulos on x

  Huge opportunity for Twitter for Kids https://twitter.com/...

• @silviakillings Silvia Killingsworth on x

  hats off @wsj https://about.instagram.com/ ...

• @andymstone Andy Stone on x

  As @mosseri just announced, we are: 1. Pausing the development of “Instagram Kids” 2. Continuing to build opt-in parental supervision tools 3. Maintaining a focus on teen safety https://about.instagram.com/ ...

• @sam_l_shead Sam Shead on x

  Instagram has “paused” work on the Instagram Kids app it was building https://t.co/FybadJOTPb

• @sarafischer Sara Fischer on x

  🚨 Facebook pausing Instagram Kids, per new blog post authored by @mosseri - “We believe building “Instagram Kids” is the right thing to do, but we're pausing the work.” https://twitter.com/...

• @oliviasolon Olivia Solon on x

  From Facebook's official blog post https://about.instagram.com/ ... https://twitter.com/...

• @andymstone Andy Stone on x

  @CaseyNewton We're sharing these decks with Congress in advance of the hearing this week and we're evaluating how we can release it to the public at some point.

• @fbnewsroom @fbnewsroom on x

  Contrary to The Wall Street Journal's characterization, Instagram's research shows that on 11 of 12 well-being issues, teenage girls who said they struggled with those difficult issues also said that Instagram made them better rather than worse. https://about.fb.com/...

• @stevekovach Steve Kovach on x

  Last night FB attempted a point-by-point analysis of why it thinks WSJ was wrong about Instagram harming teen girls. https://about.fb.com/... This morning it “paused” Instagram kids over concerns raised in WSJ series. https://www.cnbc.com/...

• @danielsand Dan Sandler on x

  @CaseyNewton Is it just me, or is their PR purposely written to be difficult to actually parse their message. They at one point talk about how the WSJ is basing on a super small N (<50) so their results are not significant. Then claim the same study shows they are doing good.

• @jeffhorwitz Jeff Horwitz on x

  Thinking a bit today about former FB employees, including @YaelEisenstat and @szhang_ds, who publicly criticized the company and got accused of grandstanding. Regardless of their seniority or tenure, everything the @WSJ team has written about FB is compatible with what they said.

• @bplewis @bplewis on x

  Well color me shocked to read that Facebook says a Facebook study about a Facebook property finds that said Facebook property is not a toxic cesspool for teenagers according to Facebook https://twitter.com/...

• @rmac18 @rmac18 on x

  FB spox suggests that the slides will be released at some point, but why wasn't it with this blog post? This just gives people more to be suspicious about. https://twitter.com/...

• @mikeisaac Rat King on x

  facebook goes on the offensive against the WSJ report on Instagram and teens research https://about.fb.com/...

• @rmac18 @rmac18 on x

  The problem with these blog posts is that Facebook is at such a trust deficit it can't just reference “research” it has done and ask people to believe it. It'd go a long way to release the full report (which the co already hid internally from employees). https://about.fb.com/...

• @samidh @samidh on x

  I'd find blog posts like this much more persuasive if they were co-authored by the individual researchers who actually did the analysis. That would be a signal that they are willing to stand behind the comms team's characterization of their work. https://about.fb.com/...

• @oliviasolon Olivia Solon on x

  Why doesn't Facebook just publish the frickin research? https://twitter.com/...

• @rmac18 @rmac18 on x

  The blog post is also fundamentally in conflict over the research. Facebook says that actually the research shows that 11/12 metrics showed that Instagram was good for teens. But later down it suggests the results are unreliable. Well... which is it? https://twitter.com/...

• @seanrobinson1e4 Sean Robinson on x

  When you have a documented history of lying and you don't show the data behind your self-serving claims, don't expect to be trusted. https://twitter.com/...

• @jesselehrich Jesse Lehrich on x

  Facebook brags that only 1 out of every 100 teens has had suicidal thoughts because of Instagram. https://about.fb.com/... https://twitter.com/...

• @nkulw Noah Kulwin on x

  I would say that sentences like “Body image was the only area where teen girls who reported struggling with the issue said Instagram made it worse as compared to the other 11 areas” are inadvisable but truthfully it seems like none of this shit matters https://about.fb.com/...

• @andymstone Andy Stone on x

  @KurtWagner8 Yes, this is the very slide the Journal quoted. If it's unrecognizable, maybe it's because the Journal didn't note that in 11 of 12 areas more teenage girls who said they struggled with that issue also said that Instagram made those difficult times better rather than…

• @jamisonfoser Jamison Foser on x

  @HowardKushlan @MikeIsaac I love that Facebook will tell you “we have the smartest people in the world doing all kinds of sophisticated research into our effects on things” and then when someone reports that research demonstrates bad effects Facebook will say “our N was small thi…

• @jeffjarvis Jeff Jarvis on x

  Right. Facebook has to learn that there is not trust without transparency. Make the arguments here with full release of the research. https://twitter.com/...

• @jeffhorwitz Jeff Horwitz on x

  Definitely curious why Facebook has restricted internal access to this research given that it's so positive for the company. https://about.fb.com/...

• @jonfortt Jon Fortt on x

  “Actually Cheetos are good for you” is about the worst take Facebook could have countered with, yet here we are: https://about.fb.com/...

• @evelyndouek Evelyn Douek on x

  We really need independent and transparent research into social media so we're not deciding if social media is good actually based on selective disclosure by two of the most powerful corporations in the world of what 40 teenage girls may or may not have said https://twitter.com/.…

• @dlauer Dave Lauer on x

  There is no “Facebook research” which can be believed. It's a fundamentally unethical firm with a history of fraud, as I detailed here: https://link.springer.com/... The only reasonable approach would be to release the data. & as a monopolist, that should be a regulatory requirem…

• @kevinmdraper Kevin Draper on x

  @MikeIsaac Also they knew the WSJ stories were coming for weeks (months?) and the best they have is...an unconvincing blog post a full week after publication?

• @jamestitcomb James Titcomb on x

  Question isn't whether Instagram is a net positive - lots of problematic things are net positive - it's why 10s of millions of teenagers find it makes them feel worse https://about.fb.com/... https://twitter.com/...

• @matt_cochrane7 Matthew Cochrane on x

  @BDubes82 The WSJ criticisms were based on these same studies. You can't write hit articles that cherry picks data. Good reporting should look at the entire picture.

• @chrismessina Chris Messina on x

  Reminder that last week's @TechmemePodcast Experience had a robust discussion about these and related topics with @justinhendrix @AuthorPMBarrett and @EmilyTav and research on Facebook you may have missed: https://pod.link/... https://twitter.com/...

• @carnage4life Dare Obasanjo on x

  I'd love to see corresponding research from Twitter, TikTok or Reddit from users as to if they felt better, worse or neutral about their lives after using the service. Without that baseline it's hard to reason about if these results typical or unusual. https://about.fb.com/...

• @ashleevance Ashlee Vance on x

  Facebook begins research effort on technology that could make slide decks available to the public https://twitter.com/...

• @girlsreallyrule Amee Vanderpool on x

  We should charge Facebook under RICO.

• @fbnewsroom @fbnewsroom on x

  This research, like external research on these issues, found teens report having both positive and negative experiences with social media. We do research to find out how we can improve the experience for teens, and our research has informed product changes and new resources.

• @jason_kint Jason Kint on x

  Seems to be the Bill Barr strategy. Release an out of context and deceptive summary ahead of time to plant your headlines then release the details once public no longer knows the difference. https://twitter.com/...

• @bostonjoan Joan Donovan on x

  I remember in the 1990s, a lot of people were worried that airbrushing photos in teen magazines would give girls unrealistic expectations about their bodies. Girls were told in high school that we had to work on our self-esteem. The magazines kept printing such horror shows. http…

• @lmatsakis Louise Matsakis on x

  A lot of reasonable criticism to make here about transparency, etc. But I think what this also shows is that it's very hard to measure and make sense of how social media impacts society. It's obviously a mixed bag, because these sites have swallowed up so many cultural functions …

• @sheeraf Sheera Frenkel on x

  I can say this because we are on a group chat and he knows it to be true- my first thought was exactly the same as Ryan. Facebook releasing the research on teens and Instagram would be infinitely more convincing/impactful than this blog post. https://twitter.com/...

• @benedictevans Benedict Evans on x

  Coming out punching. It would be interesting to see the full reports - FB says selective quotation and shows the actual slides, but not the full PDF... https://twitter.com/...

• @mikeisaac Rat King on x

  i think this is one of the major problems i have with this rebuttal either you find the research and it's methodologies useful and instructive, or you don't, right? isnt it flawed to slap down sample size in some areas of the report as non representative but play up others? https…

• @gilbertjasono Jason O. Gilbert on x

  @MikeIsaac Does Facebook cause high schoolers to develop clinical depression? Sure. On the other hand, we also found that teens using Facebook were “75% more likely to be interested in Bitcoin”

• @kurtwagner8 Kurt Wagner on x

  Facebook just published a blog post that argues its research shows that IG is not as bad for teen girls as WSJ reported last week. They offered up this research slide, which is the same slide it claims WSJ cited in its piece https://about.fb.com/... https://twitter.com/...

• @prestonmaddock Preston Maddock on x

  If that was the overwhelming conclusion of the research, why'd it take Facebook 2 weeks of PR hell to write this blog? Why don't they just release the original research report? https://twitter.com/...

• @somospostpc @somospostpc on x

  Translation “what the WSJ published was so wrong it took a team of highly experienced crisis managers and facebook executives to come up with these empty words and, still, zero proof against what the WSJ reported” ok https://twitter.com/...

• @scottmonty Scott Monty on x

  Hey, look everybody: Facebook does corporate gaslighting! Imagine how much we'd respect or trust them if they acknowledged what we all know. https://twitter.com/...

• @benedictevans Benedict Evans on x

  It might be a good idea for Facebook to post the full reports that it says the WSJ misinterpreted, with annotations to explain all the shorthand and caveats. Then we could make our own minds up.

• @eric_seufert Eric Seufert on x

  Tristan Harris on Real Time with Bill Maher, discussing the Facebook Files reporting from WSJ: “This is a Cambridge Analytica-sized moment with these WSJ releases” -> So a wholly inflated narrative about something totally inconsequential?

• @moonalice Roger McNamee on x

  @sheeraf Releasing the research will most likely result in one of two outcomes: either confirming the worst suspicions about impact of Instagram on teens or confirming the worst suspicions about the quality of FB's research.

• @mikeisaac Rat King on x

  wild to hear facebook argue “Instagram mostly make teen girls feel better about themselves except in the area of body image issues”

• @bdubes82 Billy Duberstein on x

  @Matt_Cochrane7 This may be true but should you really put that much credence in a study done by Instagram on itself

• @qwongsj Queenie Wong on x

  I asked Facebook if there's a way to view the research. Spox: “We're sharing these decks with Congress in advance of the hearing this week and we're evaluating how we can release it to the public at some point.” https://twitter.com/...

• @zamaan_qureshi Zamaan Qureshi on x

  Facebook seems to want to go on the offensive on Thursday ahead of their Senate Judiciary hearing on this subject. But there are parents and teens who are asking for answers and they deserve to know what the full research shows. /4

• @shiringhaffary Shirin Ghaffary on x

  For a second I got my hopes up and thought Facebook might actually be sharing its raw research on Insta and teens — in full — but alas... https://twitter.com/...

• @fbnewsroom @fbnewsroom on x

  Here is a slide the WSJ did not publish, which shows that Instagram helps many teens who are struggling with some of the hardest issues they experience. The one exception was body image. https://twitter.com/...

• @benlikestocode Ben Oberkfell on x

  when you read this, replace the word “Instagram” with “cigarettes” https://twitter.com/... https://twitter.com/...

• @matt_cochrane7 Matthew Cochrane on x

  What? You mean the truth might be nuanced on a complex issue and not black and white? $FB https://twitter.com/...

• @davidlazer David Lazer on x

  Putting aside the particulars of this dispute between @Facebook & @WSJ, what is distressing here is that the @Facebook response isn't “of course, we have a lot more & better research on this important topic than a 40 person focus group & two modest sized surveys” https://twitter.…

• @caseynewton Casey Newton on x

  Stop telling us what's on the slides and just publish them so we can all read for ourselves https://twitter.com/...

• @benedictevans Benedict Evans on x

  The irony of calling the WSJ's set of internal FB docs ‘a new Cambridge Analytica’ moment is that CA was, in the end, nonsense - a hoax. None of the things people worried about had happened, but the idea it might have been true changed people's attitudes...