The Facebook Files

In 2021, long-hidden facts about Facebook came into public view. The Wall Street Journal published a series of investigative articles dubbed The Facebook Files which revealed that since at least 2019, Facebook has been conducting studies into the effects of its photo-sharing platform Instagram on young users. In an article titled “Facebook Knows Instagram Is Toxic for Teen Girls, Company Documents Show,” slides from internal corporate presentations in 2019-2020 are laid bare. Facebook’s own research findings were bleak, especially for girls:

• “We make body image issues worse for one in three teen girls.”
• “Comparisons on Instagram can change how young women view and describe themselves.”
• “Teens blame Instagram for increases in the rate of anxiety and depression. This reaction was unprompted and consistent across all age groups.”
• “Young people are acutely aware that Instagram is having a negative effect on their mental health, but they are compelled to spend time on the app for fear of missing out on cultural and social trends.”

Internal corporate slides also noted that 13% of British teens and 6% of American teens who reported having suicidal thoughts attributed those thoughts to their use of Instagram. And among boys and girls, one in five teens “say Instagram makes them feel worse about themselves.”

These startling statistics are especially alarming since 22 million teens log on to Instagram each day. Over 40% of all Instagram users are under the age of 22.

Both in-depth and broad corporate research conducted with tens of thousands of participants revealed that some of the worst problems with social comparison were specific to Instagram – with its emphasis on the body and lifestyle – and not social media platforms at large.

According to March 2020 internal research, the pressure to look perfect leads to unhealthy body image, eating disorders, and depression. With the algorithm pushing additional images and similar video content to what users are already consuming, teens can easily spiral downward. When one teen searched for exercise videos, she was bombarded with content about weight loss, ideal body type, and diet advice. “I’m pounded with it every time I go on Instagram,” she lamented.

The Allegations

Aware of these facts for years, Facebook has consistently downplayed the negative effects of Instagram on teens in public, the Facebook Files allege. Instead, corporate executives have testified to the contrary. When asked about mental health and children’s welfare at a March 2021 congressional hearing, CEO Mark Zuckerberg stated, “The research that we’ve seen is that using social apps to connect with other people can have positive mental-health benefits.”

Nor would the company disclose its research to academics or legislators who have asked for it, say WSJ reporters. Instead, they sent senators a 6-page letter, leaving out Facebook’s own findings, with the comment, “We are not aware of a consensus among studies or experts about how much screen time is ‘too much.’ ” Lawmakers have criticized Facebook for its evasiveness. As Senator Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut noted, “Facebook seems to be taking a page from the textbook of Big Tobacco – targeting teens with potentially dangerous products while masking the science in public.”

San Diego State University psychology professor Jean Twenge, who has conducted her own research into the effects of social media and teen mental health, echoes Blumenthal’s criticisms and concerns. She encourages no one to minimize the negative impact of social media, writing it off as teen girls being emotional: “We’re looking at clinical level depression that requires treatment. We’re talking about self-harm that lands people in the ER.”

Teens themselves have noticed Instagram’s negative effects and have done research of their own. As part of a national science competition, Wisconsin high schoolers Destinee Ramos and Isabel Yoblonski conducted a peer survey. Their findings? Of the 98 students who responded, almost 90% said “social media negatively affected their mental health.”

Worst of all, Facebook’s research shows that even teens who express a desire to spend less time on Instagram “often ‘feel addicted’ and know that what they’re seeing is bad for their mental health but feel unable to stop themselves.”

The Response

To this mountain of evidence, what is Facebook’s response? Facebook is aggressively rebutting many of the whistleblower’s claims as unfair. “When our work is being mischaracterized, we’re not going to apologize. We’re going to defend our record,” said Facebook spokesman Tucker Bounds.

According to CNBC, “At the heart of these stories is a premise which is false,” a Facebook spokesperson said in a statement in response to the flood of reporting. “Yes, we’re a business and we make profit, but the idea that we do so at the expense of people’s safety or wellbeing misunderstands where our own commercial interests lie. The truth is we’ve invested $13 billion and have over 40,000 people to do one job: keep people safe on Facebook.”

In Facebook’s defense, Mark Zuckerberg himself has pushed back on many negative reports as misleading, saying they mischaracterize the company’s research and actions. He commented on Frances Haugen’s congressional testimony in a letter to Facebook employees: “At the heart of these accusations is this idea that we prioritize profit over safety and well-being. That’s just not true.” He critiqued the logic of many of the whistleblower’s assertions, taking issue with the argument that the company prioritizes profit over people: “We care deeply about issues like safety, well-being and mental health…..I think most of us just don’t recognize the false picture of the company that is being painted.”

Zuckerberg has also addressed the Facebook Files head-on: “Good faith criticism helps us get better, but my view is that we are seeing a coordinated effort to selectively use leaked documents to paint a false picture of our company. The reality is that we have an open culture that encourages discussion and research on our work so we can make progress on many complex issues that are not specific to just us.”

He noted that while every negative experience on his platforms is regrettable, the Wall Street Journal failed to mention the positive effects of Instagram found in the very same research it cited to attack the company.

“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,” said Zuckerberg. “In fact, in 11 of 12 areas on the slide referenced by the Journal –including serious areas like loneliness, anxiety, sadness and eating issues – more teenage girls who said they struggled with that issue also said Instagram made those difficult times better rather than worse.”

Zuckerberg also noted that the problems young people are experiencing are reflections of social issues with root causes far greater than the actions of any one private company. The criticisms lobbed at Facebook are reflections of society as a whole. “These issues aren’t primarily about social media,” Zuckerberg said in a CNBC article. “That means that no matter what Facebook does, we’re never going to solve them on our own.”

Although its focus is on young adults, Facebook has planned to push a new Instagram product to even younger kids, children under 13, a move opposed by 44 state (and territory) attorneys general. Zuckerberg defended the plan in a 2021 congressional hearing. When asked whether Facebook had studied the app’s effects on children, Zuckerberg answered, “I believe the answer is yes.”

You can read the full Wall Street Journal article – including slides from internal Facebook corporate presentations – here.

Discover more about Facebook’s corporate knowledge about the harm its products cause at The Facebook Files.

Read more about Mark Zuckerberg’s response to the Facebook Files here.

Wells, Georgia, Horwitz, Jeff, and Seetharaman, Deepa. “Facebook Knows Instagram Is Toxic for Teen Girls, Company Documents Show.” The Wall Street Journal, 17 Sept 2021, https://www.wsj.com/articles/facebook-knows-instagram-is-toxic-for-teen-girls-company-documents-show-11631620739.

Photo by Brett Jordan on Unsplash