Meta & Children's Online SafetyEmail: Instagram SSI Postmortem
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Case 4:22-md-03047-YGR Document 2872-6 Filed 03/25/26 Page 1 of 5 AMENDED Exhibit 175 PLAINTIFFS' OMNIBUS OPPOSITION TO DEFENDANTS' MOTIONS FOR SUMMARY JUDGMENT Case No.: 4:22-md-03047-YGR MDL No. 3047 In Re: Social Media Adolescent Addiction/Personal Injury Products Liability Litigation Case 4:22-md-03047-YGR Document 2872-6 Filed 03/25/26 Page 2 of 5 Message From: Nick Clegg [/O=THEFACEBOOK/OU=EXCHANGE ADMINISTRATIVE GROUP (FYDIBOHF23SPDLT)/CN=RECIPIENTS/CN=NCLEGGE6E] 3/5/2019 6:40:20 AM Sent: To: Subject: FW: Instagram SSI Postmortem FYI From: Nick Clegg Date: Monday, March 4, 2019 at 10:40 PM To: Molly Cutler < , Guy Rosen < Subject: Re: Instagram SSI Postmortem Thx Molly - a thankless task, but am grateful to you for doing this. Joel Kaplan It's all accurate - except that four days after the BBC story broke I said publicly (carried in all UK headlines on the day) that we would review all our policies, and that we would do "whatever it takes" to address the legitimate concerns raised. Javi, Guy and I were in touch by email - and I had alerted Sheryl, Mark and even the Board to the gravity of the issue. Yet, despite Guy's team's great cooperation, it was not till the large meeting in Sheryl's office - I can't remember the date - with myself, Chris C, Schrep, Dave Wehner and others that there was any recognition that the policy was too heavily skewed towards the needs of those committing SSI rather than those susceptible to copying it. This lack of connection between what we commit to publicly and what we do internally really worried, and slightly shocked, me. I don't know how/whether you want to reflect any of this - but it is important context. N From: Molly Cutler Date: Monday, March 4, 2019 at 10:19 PM To: Nick Clegg <r n>, Guy Rosen h>, Joel Kaplan Subject: Instagram SSI Postmortem I've badly dragged my feet on getting this Instagram SSI postmortem to Sheryl, in part because I know that some of the key stakeholders in product policy would disagree with this characterizations. I would like to send the overview and root causes sections of this to Sheryl in an email, copying you all and noting that we have internalized lessons learned here, and move on. Please let me know if you'd like to change or discuss any of this or if there are any specific follow ups that you think we should document. Overview On January 22, the BBC reported that exposure to graphic images of cutting and self-injury on Instagram contributed to the suicide of 14-year-old Molly Russell. Our policy permitted these images unless they clearly promoted or celebrated suicide or self-injury. Graphic images shared with no caption or context did not violate our policy. These non-violating images were discoverable in Instagram Explore and did not count in the >30% threshold used to implement the "hashtag HIGHLY CONFIDENTIAL (COMPETITOR) META3047MDL-004-00025341 Case 4:22-md-03047-YGR Document 2872-6 Filed 03/25/26 Page 3 of 5 playbook" on Instagram, which reduces the discoverability of hashtags with a high proportion of violating content. We faced several weeks of intense press and policymaker criticism, largely confined to the UK, focused primarily on the availability of this content on Instagram, and secondarily on the discoverability of this content on Instagram. Throughout this period, our product policy team appeared confident that our policy permitting graphic cutting content was likely to remain largely in place, as informed by consistent engagement with experts on these issues, and we worked to pursue a long-term product strategy of reducing the discoverability of non-violating graphic cutting content, an incomplete but meaningful response to the criticism. Starting on January 26, in response to escalating criticism, we said that we would "undertake a full review of our enforcement policies and technologies" around self-harm. On February 4, we met with experts and decided to change our policy. Going forward, we will remove graphic cutting images even in the context of admitting one's mental health struggles, because we now recognize that the potential for modeling how to self-harm, normalizing self-harm, and/or triggering self-harm in others outweighs the value of sharing the content. In addition, we will make product changes to reduce the discoverability of non-graphic self-harm content- such as healed scars-by preventing it from appearing in search, hashtags, the explore tab, or recommendations. These announced changes have landed well and we got credit-but do not undo the damage we have incurred as a result of this protracted cycle. Root Causes 1. We had the wrong policy on graphic cutting images, and were too slow to reconsider/schedule engagement with experts about our policy in response to escalating criticism. a. There appears have been ineffective escalation/resolution of the issue at the Director/VP level of the policy team, particularly during the first week of the crisis. b. The safety policy team was slower than they could have been to schedule meeting with experts even after VP request to reconsider policy, and failed to communicate/anticipate eventual policy changes. The outcome of February 4 policy meeting was a surprise to most XFN stakeholders, who had been conditioned to expect outcome at expert level would be to hold the line on policy. 2. Communication channels and XFN coordination were ineffective between UK/MPK time zones and IG/FB teams across Comms, Policy, Product, and Ops. Most teams did not become aware until the story was already locked. 3. We strategically de-prioritized SSI product work on IG. This was due in part to the previous narrow policy resulting in low impact of work-relatively small proportion of content eligible for removal under previous policy. Timeline Jan 8 - BBC first reaches out to IG UK Comms, asks for interview to discuss SSI; IG UK Comms loops in IG and FB EMEA Policy; statement and background briefing offered; background briefing declined Jan 8 - Issue escalated within Comms, FB Policy looped in Jan 16 - UK Comms provides our statement back to BBC (see below for statement) Jan 21 - MPK Comms looped in Jan 22 - BBC story runs Jan 23 - Strategic Response team looped in; first XFN meeting conducted; based on feedback from safety policy, IG policy and product, team aligns on strategic approach to explain our existing policy line more emphatically Jan 24 - 2nd XFN; strategic approach continues to be explain our stance better; coverage slowing down Jan 25 - coverage further slowing down; fact gathering on accounts related to Molly Russell completed Jan 26 - news about Sunday Times story prep; Nick BBC interview on Monday; Nick re-escalates issue; 3rd XFN; strategic approach moves from "explain our stance better" to "we need to change and communicate it quickly"; changes on product and enforcement agreed on, no major changes contemplated on policy but discussion about scheduling meeting with experts to validate our existing policies and proposed product/enforcement changes Jan 27 - our 2nd statement issued; Sunday Times story; coverage picking up further; begin executing product and enforcement changes, no major changes contemplated on policy HIGHLY CONFIDENTIAL (COMPETITOR) ΜΕΤΑ3047MDL-004-00025342 Case 4:22-md-03047-YGR Document 2872-6 Filed 03/25/26 Page 4 of 5 Week of Jan 28 - coverage worsening - shifting to IG's actions being insufficient and regulation discussion; execution on product and enforcement continues, no major changes contemplated on policy; February 4 meeting scheduled with experts to "validate existing policy" and review proposed product changes Feb 1 - assessment that coverage is continuing to get worse; decision to open up our policies for review and to be more aggressive in product (removing rather than blurring content, considering non-violating content in hashtag removals) Feb 4 - Adam's op-ed; Policy meeting with experts; decision to change policy to remove cutting images January 16 Statement "Mental health is a complex issue facing young people and we work closely with experts across the world to provide the Instagram community with support when and where they need it. We do not allow content that promotes or glorifies eating disorders, self-harm or suicide and will remove content of this kind. However, for many young people, discussing their mental health journey or connecting with others who have battled similar issues, is an important part of their recovery. This is why we go beyond simply removing content and take a holistic approach by offering people looking at or posting non-violating content the option to access tips and support, talk to a friend or reach out directly to the Samaritans in the UK." January 21 Statement "Our thoughts go out to Molly's family and anyone dealing with the issues raised in this report. We do not allow content that promotes or glorifies eating disorders, self-harm or suicide and work hard to remove it. However, for many young people, discussing their mental health journey or connecting with others who have battled similar issues, is an important part of their recovery. This is why we don't remove certain content and instead offer people looking at, or posting it, support when they might need it most. Advertisements on Instagram are not targeted to appear next to certain videos or content. Ads people see are based on interests, not the content you see above and below those ads." January 27 Statement Our thoughts go out to Molly's family and anyone dealing with the issues raised in this report. Nothing is more important to us than the safety of the people in our community, and we work with experts everyday to best understand the ways to keep them safe. We do not allow content that promotes or encourages eating disorders, self-harm or suicide and use technology to find and remove it. Mental health and self-harm are complex and nuanced issues, and we work with expert groups who advise us on our approach. They tell us that the sharing of a person's mental health struggle or connecting with others who have battled similar issues, can be an important part of recovery. This is why we don't remove certain content and instead offer people looking at, or posting it, support messaging that directs them to groups that can help. "We are undertaking a full review of our enforcement policies and technologies around self-harm, suicide and eating disorders. As part of this, we are consulting further with mental health bodies and academics to understand what more we can do to protect and support our community, especially young people. While we undertake this review, we are taking measures aimed at preventing people from finding self-harm related content through search and hashtags." January 31 Statement "Our thoughts are with Molly's family and anyone affected by suicide or self-harm. We have a deep responsibility to make sure young people using Instagram are safe. We take this seriously and are taking action. We want to be sure we're getting this right and that's why we have started a full review of our policies, enforcement and technologies around suicide and self-injury content on Instagram. "Whilst we conduct this review, over the weekend we deployed engineers to start making changes to make it harder for people to search for and find self-harm content. "From now, we have further restricted the ability for anyone to find content by searching for hashtags and in the Explore pages and we are stopping the recommendation of accounts that post self-harm content. In addition, from next week HIGHLY CONFIDENTIAL (COMPETITOR) META3047MDL-004-00025343 Case 4:22-md-03047-YGR Document 2872-6 Filed 03/25/26 Page 5 of 5 people will start to see sensitivity screens appear over self-harm related content that is permitted under the guidelines. "On the completion of the review, we will share what we have learned and what more we can do to protect the people who use Instagram." February 7 Statement "Nothing is more important to me than the safety of the people who use Instagram. We are not where we need to be on self-harm and suicide, and we need to do more to protect the most vulnerable in our community. "Today, following a comprehensive review with global experts, we're announcing further changes to our approach on self-harm content. We will not allow any graphic images of self-harm, such as cutting on Instagram - even if it would previously have been allowed as admission. We will also make it harder for people to discover non-graphic, self-harm related content and we won't be recommending it. We are not removing non-graphic self-harm related content from Instagram entirely, as we don't want to stigmatize or isolate people who may be in distress. "My goal is to provide a safe and supportive community for everyone. I have a responsibility to get this right. We will get better and we are committed to finding and removing this content at scale, and working with experts and the wider industry to find ways to support people when they're most in need." HIGHLY CONFIDENTIAL (COMPETITOR) META3047MDL-004-00025344