Senate panel interrogates Instagram CEO on how platform protects children

Instagram executive Adam Mosseri, appearing before the Senate commerce consumer protection panel, defended the platform and called on lawmakers to create an industry body to better regulate social media.

The hearing comes as Instagram and its parent company, Meta Platforms (formerly Facebook), face global criticism over the ways their services affect the mental health, body image and online safety of younger users after the release of internal documents from former employee and whistleblower Frances Haugen.

Lawmakers also pressed Mosseri to release more of the internal research referenced in those papers including a presentation about anorexia and suicidal thoughts among teens. Mosseri committed to better transparency but said that specific presentation was likely deleted due to data retention laws.

Other senators had strong words for Mosseri, bringing grave examples of harms done to children through the Instagram platform. Maria Cantwell told Mosseri of one of her constituents who claimed her young daughter was groomed by adults on Instagram, lured into sex trafficking and taken across state lines for prostitution.

Meanwhile, Blumenthal, the Democratic senator and chair of the panel, asked on Wednesday that Instagram permanently scrap its development of a platform for children, which the company previously suspended amid growing opposition. Mosseri declined to commit to a permanent stop, but said any related projects would require parental consent.

In a blogpost published on Tuesday, the social media service announced it was switching off the ability for people to tag or mention teens who do not follow them on the app and would enable teen users to to bulk delete their content and previous likes and comments.

While lawmakers seemed satisfied to make some concrete steps towards formulating better social media policies, activists remained wary.

Agencies contributed reporting