"we're talking about actively encouraging young girls into body dysmorphia"

Margaret Stewart: "We are asking for your support to update our policies to: 1. Disallow effects that mimic plastic surgery for first party (FB/IG/MSGR) and third party effects. 2. Disallow default-on settings, including sticky settings, for camera effects and filters (to be discussed further, see next steps)" "We're seeing a rise in popularity of beauty effects — both in creation and in use — which has reinvigorated the conversation on the stance that Facebook, Instagram, Oculus, etc. should take on how those filters relate to body image, mental health, and wellbeing. This is especially sensitive for its potential impact on our younger users, who are the biggest demographic using our Spark effects." "Policy recommendation: Reject cosmetic effects that change the user's facial structure in a way that cannot be achieved by makeup and must be achieved by plastic surgery. This excludes fantastical effects that change a user's facial structure for the purpose of turning the user into a character or animal." Andrew Bosworth: "Just FYI I mentioned this to Mark and he might want to review before implementing. He is concerned about whether we have good enough data that this represents real harm" John Hegeman: "I'd also love to go deeper on our understanding of the harm and where we are relative to the broader market and cultural norms across the world. In general I worry that our approach to these policies is too US-centric and also doesn't put enough emphasis on giving people the power to represent themselves in the way that they would like." "Plastic Surgery: I think a blanket ban on things that can't be done with make-up is going to limit our ability to be competitive in Asian markets (including India). I'd much rather see us develop a more nuanced framework for responsible use that still allows us to build the products that people clearly want and intentionally seek out." Margaret Stewart: "Hi John, The team put together a one(-ish) pager on the academic research and external engagement that was conducted before forming the policy recommendation. I think it outlines some compelling motivations for formalizing these policies. https://docs.google.com/document/d/1JYY60GeffqAAg_ZkQ61GcAHXsfIBDr2koliFZPT1v_w/edit#" "These restrictions on plastic surgery effects have been informally in place for a long time so I am a bit surprised to hear the push back. When we last talked, all teams were in support of these guidelines. Is there something specific about the wording that causes concern? Or do you feel these are different than what we discussed in the past?" Andrew Bosworth: "Margaret – to your question about what changed, I can't speak for others but I may have initially misunderstood the scope we aspired to here with this policy. I agree filters that encourage plastic surgery (as the one on IG recently) are too far but as written below I worry we are taking too aggressive a stance... I worry if we are too severe in denying users something for which they have demand then all we will do in practice is move them into other apps which aren't likely to be as restrained... I also share the concern others have raised about the cultural lens of the research as it does seem to be applying a western standard across cultures, though I haven't read every study in depth so this may just be a misreading on my part." Karina Newton: "[It]'s been our strong recommendation from comms, marketing, policy, and engagement with nearly 20 outside experts and academics that we pass this policy which codifies a more refined and pressure tested version of our temporary policy (the one we made after the uproar last month) which disallows effects that mimic plastic surgery." "As you know, these Spark filters primarily live on IG right now and are overwhelmingly used by teen girls. Some of the arguments below seem to be rooted in 'not giving people what they want/being paternalistic' views but think it undermines the seriousness of the subject -- we're talking about actively encouraging young girls into body dysmorphia and enabling self-view of an idealized face (and very western definition of that face by the way) that can result in serious issues. It's also unrealistic to expect a large body of academic research on these subjects given the newness of the technology but the outside academics and experts consulted were nearly unanimous on the harm here." ████: "I personally fall on the side of being more principled and disallowing any type of effects that cannot be achieved with makeup. I think this is especially challenging for us because whatever decision we make here will impact IG first given (a) the dominance of camera usage vs the rest of the family and (b) our position of strength with young people." ████: "Agree with all of this. I'm all for option value, but the argument that this decision might move people into other apps doesn't carry weight with me If it means we're not setting a good example/being a good steward for young people." Adam Mosseri: "I agree with John actually, but would probably frame things differently as I think his not isn't quite earning him credibility with Margaret and crew... I'd be happy to support effects that mimic plastic surgery, but all effects you can't do without makeup ends up disallowing gender swap, old version of yourself, baby face, non-animal monster looking self for hallloween making you look like someone else, etc, which doesn't seem right." ████: "I'm pretty sure that a lot of that is still allowed... it's more about not allowing effects associated with plastic surgery." Karina Newton: "Given that we are the biggest platform for these, I would argue our decision here will actually put pressure on other platforms in positive ways. But more fundamentally, of all the myriad of ways we are being accused of being bad for young people, I don't know why we wouldn't take this opportunity to lead on well-being. Instagram is intrinsically a huge target (social comparison, image based platform/body image issues, branded content, rising teen anxiety, tech addiction, etc) this is an easy win and place to draw strength from as we defend what's core to our product and value to people." Adam Mosseri: "I hear you, it's pretty clear where you stand on this. For what it's worth I'm more focused on the effects than the stakeholders, but appreciate that both are important."