wall street journal: Facebook says Instagram is not harmful for teens – Times of India

Facebook hits back at a report on a research about the impact of Instagram on teenagers after it was made public on Wall Street Journal. The company claims that the report has not only misunderstood the purpose of the report, but the results of the research itself.
The Wall Street Journal, its own internal research, claimed that Facebook was well aware of the negative impacts Instagram was having on teenagers (particularly teenage girls) — an impact that the tech giant played down in public.
The report, based on a “trove of internal communications” reviewed by Wall Street Journal, raised concerns around the photo-sharing app, prompting US lawmakers to press the world’s largest social network for more answers.
Facebook has hit back those claims with a blog entry titled “What Our Research Really Says About Teen Well-Being and Instagram”. As per Facebook, the internal research reported by the Wall Street Journal shows that teenagers actually reported benefits from using Instagram.
Pratiti Raychoudhury, Vice President and Head of Research at Facebook said, “It is simply not accurate that this research demonstrates Instagram is “toxic” for teen girls. The research actually demonstrated that many teens we heard from feel that using Instagram helps them when they are struggling with the kinds of hard moments and issues teenagers have always faced.”

Facebook also criticised that “implied” claims it was hiding the actual research which spoke openly about the negatives of social media as well as its benefits for over a decade.
Raychoudhury added, “Our internal research is part of our effort to minimize the bad on our platforms and maximize the good. We have a long track record of using our research — as well as external research and close collaboration with our Safety Advisory Board, Youth Advisors and additional experts and organizations — to inform changes to our apps and provide resources for the people who use them.”
However, some US lawmakers are reportedly planning to launch a probe into Facebook’s knowledge of Instagram’s reported negative impact on teens.
US senators in their statement said. “ “It is clear that Facebook is incapable of holding itself accountable. When given the opportunity to come clean to us about their knowledge of Instagram’s impact on young users, Facebook provided evasive answers that were misleading and covered up clear evidence of significant harm.”