WSJ publishes six internal Facebook documents it used for its report about Instagram's negative impact on teen girls, after Facebook published two of the docs
and genuinely see ways in which they can—do good. I'm really saddened by how readily the company is throwing these researchers under the bus. Jeff Horwitz / @jeffhorwitz : So here is a selection of the documents related to teen mental health that we relied on. Facebook just ran two docs — minutes after we gave the company an hour's notice and received a commitment that they wouldn't front-run publication. https://www.wsj.com/... Georgia Wells / @georgia_wells : Here are six internal Facebook documents that @JeffHorwitz and I used to report the teen mental health on Instagram story. I'd suggest starting with: TEEN GIRLS BODY IMAGE https://www.wsj.com/... Jeff Horwitz / @jeffhorwitz : This is a new for me in 2.5 years covering Facebook — I have always been able to rely on the company's word on professional matters, and was told when I started this beat that the old “Front-running the NYT on Russia stuff” move was retired. But circumstances change. Bobby Allyn / @bobbyallyn : New: the Facebook whistleblower will be invoking whistleblower protection status, but leading legal experts say that will not stop FB from launching a retaliatory lawsuit against her https://www.npr.org/... Julia Carrie Wong / @juliacarriew : Fascinating slide from the WSJ document dump of FB research. Instagram users who follow the Kardashians and Jenners are more likely to feel more negative comparison. Researchers proposed “partnering” with them for a campaign. https://s.wsj.net/... https://twitter.com/... @althomelandsec : The fact that Congress still can't ask proper questions regarding tech is an embarrassment. https://twitter.com/... Amanda Litman / @amandalitman : Basically every tech hearing includes at least one moment in which I am reminded that the average age of the U.S. Senate is 62.9 years old and that has direct implications — for better & for worse — on the way they govern. https://twitter.com/... Blake Hounshell / @blakehounshell : The gulf between Capitol Hill and the tech industry is pretty wide, and here's an embarrassing example: https://twitter.com/... Dave Weigel / @daveweigel : Time for a special commission to investigate BOFA https://twitter.com/... Matt Blumenthal / @matt_blumenthal : Based on the fact that earlier in the hearing he literally explained what Finstas are (~38:00) and how his office created one, it seems pretty clear he understands this https://twitter.com/... Patrick Hedger / @pathedger18 : The biggest takeaway from today's Facebook hearing, for me at least, is that a lot of Republicans working to limit Facebook's ability to moderate legal content are upset with Facebook for not moderating a lot of legal content. Kara Swisher / @karaswisher : It's called receipts https://twitter.com/... Rat King / @mikeisaac : it is interesting to see of the different stories Wsj dropped last week, which one really stuck might be the nature of dropping a set of differing topics at once, but also wonder if it's just a long-simmering suspicion that the kids aren't alright somehow Jeff Horwitz / @jeffhorwitz : This is the stuff that may deserve the most attention out of the whole bunch. Instagram can argue with its own research methodology, but this is the company's own conception of its relative harm. https://twitter.com/... @rmac18 : Ted Cruz's line of questioning is where I thought this hearing would go: focused on the findings in Facebook's own research and highlighting their brutal language. FB tried to preempt this with the annotated slides last night, but there's only so much that can do optically. Carl Quintanilla / @carlquintanilla : Meanwhile, Blumenthal says, “The more I know, the more repulsed I am by what I've seen.” Bipartisanship lives. $FB https://twitter.com/... Jesse Lehrich / @jesselehrich : so Facebook releases 2 decks loaded with annotations dismissing their own internal research hours before a major hearing, feigning “transparency”... ...WSJ promptly calls their BS & then releases 4 additional Facebook decks that informed their reporting. 🙃 https://www.wsj.com/... https://twitter.com/... @rmac18 : FB: this research is anecdotal FB exec: in my past life Jeff Horwitz / @jeffhorwitz : There are other unreported stories in here! User research exploring which celebrities' content makes people feel good about themselves and which do not. And no, this isn't “causal.” It's UX research. https://twitter.com/... Jeff Horwitz / @jeffhorwitz : Finally: getting these documents clean and privacy concern-free takes a lot of time and resources it turns out. Really grateful to colleagues who made it happen. Jeff Horwitz / @jeffhorwitz : Also, if you're looking to actually review the documents we wrote our story off of — we made far more of those available than the two slide decks that FB rushed out. And none of the annotations undermine FB's mental health researchers! Cecilia Kang / @ceciliakang : Just read these documents, which included material FB did not include in its document dump tonight. Totally eye-opening and 👏 to @WSJ for releasing https://twitter.com/... David Kaye / @davidakaye : the granularity of FB's research into American teen usage is impressive (& depressing, of course) - and just makes me want to see evidence of that same granularity in every one of the company's markets worldwide. https://twitter.com/... @digitalprivacy : the WSJ “Facebook Files” is a must read. there is still a bit of fight left in traditional long form (print) media. what the story reveals is the lack of fundamental ethics in FB top management. and that won't change. /P. https://twitter.com/... Aaron Zamost / @zamosta : If you're the comms person who front-ran the WSJ after telling them you wouldn't, I have to assume someone senior overruled you, at which point you have no choice but to resign. https://twitter.com/... Christine Pelosi / @sfpelosi : Why doesn't @facebook just stop the shenanigans and release ALL the docs? They put their name @ChanZuckerberg all over public hospital spaces — all the while hiding their negative impact on people's mental health from the public. #Shame https://twitter.com/... Jason Kint / @jason_kint : 1) Facebook has no respect for the press and its responsibility to communicate to the world the best available set of facts 2) this report has them deeply concerned to burn WSJ as they did NYT and Guardian. Lock this into your brains - their PR team has no remaining cred.
Context & Ripple Effects
The document fight follows the Journal's earlier account of Facebook research finding harm for a sizeable share of users, particularly teen girls. Facebook had responded by arguing that its research showed benefits on most of the well-being measures it examined, a defense the related coverage says left other concerns unaddressed.
Facebook then released two annotated decks after learning of the Journal's plans; the Journal's broader publication turns a dispute over interpretation into one over the underlying record and each side's disclosure choices.
First-order effects
- Facebook loses sole control of the framing around the two annotated decks as the Journal makes a larger set of source documents available for readers and critics to assess.
- The Journal strengthens the evidentiary basis of its reporting while making Facebook's decision to publish selectively part of the story itself.
Second-order effects
- Facebook's public rebuttal of the Journal's findings faces closer comparison with the underlying research, raising the cost of relying on summaries rather than releasing supporting material.
- The competing releases give the whistleblower-related fallout a more concrete documentary record, increasing the material available to outside critics of Facebook's teen-safety claims.
Third-order effects
- If companies answer leaked internal research with curated disclosures, accountability battles will increasingly center on who controls the source documents and the annotations around them.
- The episode points toward greater pressure on platforms to reconcile public safety claims with internal measurement, especially when journalists can publish the primary evidence.
The trend: Platform accountability is moving from arguments over public statements toward contests over the disclosure and interpretation of internal research.