Body image & eating disorders

A large majority of experts recommended prohibiting cosmetic beauty filters

After opening the SparkAR product globally to third party creators, we've seen a rise in beauty related filters, both in creation and use… This has reinvigorated a conversation …

Unnamed employee

Profits over Safety

"Hashtags that promote eating disorders are relatively easy to find, resulting in ED content."

We seek to accelerate our ability to address content issues on platform for topics such as eating disorders, for which we have limited mitigations" …

Unnamed employee

Knowledge

"Should we allow augmented reality (AR) effects that promote beauty standards only attainable through plastic surgery?"

Unnamed employee

Profits over Safety

"We make body image issues worse for 1 in 3 teen girls"

But, we make body image issues worse for 1 in 3 teen girls" "More teen girls thought that IG made body image issues worse rather than better" …

Unnamed employee

Knowledge

Investment in teen-specific Problematic Use was "Mid-Low," teen-specific SSI was "Low-Mid," and eating disorders was "Low"

Unnamed employee

Profits over Safety

41% of US teenagers and 43% of UK teenagers said the feeling that they weren't attractive started on Instagram. 6% of US teenagers and 13% of UK teenagers said that the desire to kill themselves started on Instagram.

The perfect image, feeling attractive, and having enough money are the most likely to have started on Instagram" …

Unnamed employee

Knowledge

"One in five teens say that Instagram makes them feel worse about themselves"

Unnamed employee

Knowledge

"Teens blame Instagram for increases in the rates of anxiety and depression among teens"

Unnamed employee

Knowledge

"Content about SSI makes teens feel the worst"

Unnamed employee

Knowledge

Social comparison, body image, loneliness, SSI, and problematic use were the top categories of harm reported by teens on Instagram

We ranked issues by each category (reach, intensity, IG impact and expectation), to generate a composite average rank such that lower average indicates that the issue should be …

Unnamed employee

Knowledge

Margaret Stewart (on lifting cosmetic surgery ban): "I don't think it's the right call given the risks... I just hope that years from now we will look back and feel good about the decision we made here."

Hey there, thanks for getting back to us on this. …

Margaret Stewart

Profits over Safety

Nick Clegg (on lifting cosmetic surgery filter ban): "We would – rightly – be accused of putting growth over responsibility"

Sheryl – this has now gone back to Mark, I added you to the email thread. …

Nick Clegg

Profits over Safety

"Girls as young as 8 start to lose self-confidence b/c of negative self image and social comparison."

████: "Would we consider not surfacing certain content in our rec surfaces that we know to be triggering?" …

Vaishnavi Jayakumar and names withheld in filing

Knowledge

"The focus on beautification is a key insight"

Kevin Systrom: "Skin smoothing: We've nearly completed our skin smoothing technology. …

Kevin Systrom · Mark Zuckerberg

Knowledge

17% of teens reported seeing too much inappropriate content and being contacted by strangers

NEGATIVE EXPERIENCES ON INSTAGRAM: SUMMARY OF KEY FINDINGS" …

Unnamed employee

Knowledge

"TEENS FEEL PRESSURE TO LOOK PERFECT ON INSTAGRAM MORE THAN ANY OTHER APP"

Unnamed employee

Knowledge

"Academic research suggests a causal link between Instagram use and appearance comparison and/or body image issues."

Appearance comparison is experienced by many in our communities. …

Unnamed employee

Knowledge

"51% of people experience social comparison on IG"

Social comparison is common on IG. 51% of people experience social comparison on IG. …

Unnamed employee

Knowledge

"Sharing or viewing filtered selfies in Stories made people feel worse"

Unnamed employee

Knowledge

"When someone looks at one post that makes them feel bad, IG mechanics nudge them to keep consuming similar content"

Are we making problematic usage worse on Instagram?" "Teens report that it's easy to get distracted and mindlessly scroll in the app without getting a lot of meaning/utility" …

Unnamed employee

Knowledge

"Because we are seeing some of our well-being related efforts are effecting teens more disproportionately, we keep recommending this as a potential path. The problem is that soon we'll have several things that we will recommend (as a company) to age-gate and it if we do all of them we'll have a very stripped down version for Teens"

Margaret Stewart: "Some of the things that Schrep wanted to understand:... Any analysis of effects on the business (growth/revenue) that the current restrictions are having" …

Margaret Stewart · Pratiti Raychoudhury · Karina Newton

KnowledgeProfits over Safety

"Negative social comparison... is a significant problem on Instagram, with 68% of teen girls experiencing negative social comparison on Instagram"

A lot of NSC has been attributed to celebrities and influencers, and we've currently been looking at controls and ranking to solve this." …

Unnamed employee

Knowledge

Mark Zuckerberg: "There is also an element of just following attractive people... for the long tail of gawking I could definitely see people spending lots of time browsing public Lives of people of their preferred gender/age around the world. And it wouldn't be creepy because the people broadcasting explicitly want to have people watching them."

I'm excited about pushing ahead as fast as we can on Live because it is the most unique and promising new development in two spaces we care about deeply but are behind in: video …

Mark Zuckerberg

Youth TargetingProfits over Safety

"SSI, terrorism, and seeing someone being bullied or harassed are particularly problematic, with high reach for how intense they are."

Overall, teens have significantly more negative experiences than adults. …

Unnamed employee

KnowledgeYouth Targeting