A Facebook executive recently stated that the social media giant plans to introduce new measures in its apps to “nudge” teen users away from harmful content. The social media giant has been under fire for its business practices around teen users after leaked internal research demonstrated that its Instagram platform is toxic for teen girls.
Reuters reports that Nick Clegg, Facebook’s vice president of global affairs, recently stated that the company plans to introduce new features to its apps that direct teen users away from harmful content. Clegg told CNN’s State of the Union that Facebook was open to letting regulators have access to the company’s algorithms that are used to amplify content.
Nick Clegg (Christopher Furlong/Getty Images)
Sad teen with a phone in her bedroom (Getty Images)
Clegg stated that the algorithms “should be held to account, if necessary, by regulation so that people can match what our systems say they’re supposed to do from what actually happens.”
Discussing plans to direct teen users away from certain content, Clegg said: “We’re going to introduce something which I think will make a considerable difference, which is where our systems see that the teenager is looking at the same content over and over again and it’s content which may not be conducive to their well-being, we will nudge them to look at other content.”
He added: “We’re introducing something called, ‘take a break,’ where we will be prompting teens to just simply just take a break from using Instagram.”
Clegg’s comments come shortly after weeks of turmoil for Facebook. In a report titled “Facebook Knows Instagram Is Toxic for Teen Girls, Company Documents Show,” the Wall Street Journal claims that Facebook is aware that its photo-sharing app Instagram can have a negative effect on the body image of young women. The documents resulted in far-left whistleblower Frances Haugen testifying before Congress about the company’s actions.
Last week, the internet giant suffered its biggest service outage since 2008 with all servers going offline for over six hours. Breitbart News also recently reported that hackers are selling the personal data of 1.5 billion Facebook users online.
Lucas Nolan is a reporter for Breitbart News covering issues of free speech and online censorship. Follow him on Twitter @LucasNolan or contact via secure email at the address lucasnolan@protonmail.com
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