"Let's not break something that is not broken."

Monika Bickert: "I wanted to flag next Thursday's meeting (4/2) with Mark on 'Cosmetic Surgery AR Effects'. The issue is whether to continue our October 2019 ban on certain facial filters that mimic plastic surgery (reshaping the chin or nose, etc.). Product wants to lift the ban, but there are potential safety and IG brand risks – Nick is pretty worried about them... • Potential safety risk: We spoke to 18 mental health experts around the world. Each one raised concern that cosmetic surgery filters could cause lasting harm, especially to young people. There's no longitudinal research on this yet, however. • Potential Brand risk: The press sharply criticized us last summer after we started allowing developers to build their own effects and some of their effects were cosmetic surgery effects. We instituted the temporary ban in October because of the bad press and agreed to revisit in a few months (now). • Product perspective: Understandably, product and growth teams want to allow these effects; they're popular – especially in APAC – and developers wants freedom to be creative. Some product folks (and Adam Mosseri) think it could work to allow the filters but remove them from recommendations. It's not a perfect answer, though, because people find filters through following influencers more than through recommendations." Sheryl Sandberg: "I just reviewed this. I really hope we can keep the ban since we already have it. This follows our standards of being ahead on eating disorders, self harm. Let's not break something that is not broken."