Facebook Files

Frances Haugen has made the news recently for whistleblowing on the impact of Facebook’s business tactics on mental health. Before Frances Haugen resigned from her position as a product manager at Facebook in April, 2021, where she worked for two years, she made copies of thousands of internal documents that Facebook had not shared with the public. She collaborated with Jeff Horwitz, a technology reporter from *The* *Wall Street Journal*, to release this information with what would become known as The Facebook Files. Haugen then shared this information with lawmakers and testified before Congress. *The Wall Street Journal* also completed an in-depth investigation. Among many of the findings, a major one was that Facebook had “exploited teens using powerful algorithms that amplified their insecurities,” as later explained by U.S. Senator Richard Blumenthal. Blumenthal was referring to Haugen’s discovery that Facebook was aware of the deleterious impact that their social media platforms, particularly Instagram, were having on adolescent mental health.

Instagram was initially created with the intention of catering to teens. In hopes to increase its popularity in this population, they mimicked popular features from Snapchat, such as having the ability to add photo filters. TikTok was initially created primarily for videos and performances and Snapchat was specifically focused on the face while being intended to be more comical with its supplied filters. However, Instagram has focused on the user’s lifestyle and on the body. Currently, approximately 22 million adolescents use Instagram daily and go on the app one-and-a-half times more than Facebook.

The Facebook Files contained information where Haugen learned that Facebook (who acquired Instagram in 2012) had knowledge of Instagram’s tendency to exacerbate feelings of body insecurity. This insecurity expressly drew teen users back onto the app, only to worsen these feelings. Instagram features an ‘Explore’ page, which follows an algorithm so that users will continue to be exposed to similar content they have ben viewing, which can lead to adolescents being re-exposed to damaging content. Dr. Angela Guarda, the director of the Eating Disorders program at Johns Hopkins Hospital, reports hearing from her patients that about half of them learned how to restrict their eating or purge from Instagram.

Investigations of Facebook’s other internal data included the finding that 32% of adolescent girls and 14% of adolescent boys felt worse about their body after going on Instagram. Other leaked data revealed by Haugen was that 13.5% of adolescent girls in the United Kingdom using Instagram increased the frequency of their suicidal thoughts. Despite this internal knowledge, at a congressional hearing in March 2021, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg was quoted saying that “The research that we’ve seen is that using social apps to connect with other people can have positive mental-health benefits."  Additionally, the CEO of Instagram, Adam Mosseri, reported in May, 2021 that Instagram’s effects on teen mental health were minimal.

Project Daisy, which removes the ability to view ‘likes’ on Facebook, was piloted in 2020. The use of likes had been discovered in research focus groups to increase anxiety in teen users. However, no significant differences were seen in the social media platform’s effect on mental health after the change. Despite its ineffectiveness, according to the leaked information initiated by Haugen, due to the company desire to appease the public, the change still occurred for all Facebook and Instagram users in May 2021. While U.S. Senators Richard Blumenthal and Marsha Blackburn requested in August 2021 for Mark Zuckerberg to release all of this research to the public, he responded saying that Facebook’s internal research was not yet incomplete enough to report on its impact on mental health. Fortunately, more recently, Instagram has partnered with non-profit organizations to increase emotional resilience.  One positive strategy has been encouraging all users, but especially teens, to remind themselves and actively affirm daily that they are in control on these apps, rather than passively or unconsciously allowing social media to control them.

## 2022

Facebook corporate parent owns in addition to Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, and Oculus. Its first physical store opens in Burlingame, California in 2022.

**Further Reading**

1.    The Facebook files: A Wall Street Journal investigation. (2021). *The Wall Street Journal*. https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-facebook-files-11631713039

2.    Milmo, D. (2021, October 23). Frances Haugen: ‘I never wanted to be a whistleblower. But lives were in danger.’ *The Guardian*. https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2021/oct/24/frances-haugen-i-never-wanted-to-be-a-whistleblower-but-lives-were-in-danger

3.    Chappell, B. (2021, October 25). *The Facebook papers: What you need to know about the trove of insider documents*. NPR. https://www.npr.org/2021/10/25/1049015366/the-facebook-papers-what-you-need-to-know

4.    Leskin, P. (2020, May 26). The life and career rise of Instagram head Adam Mosseri, the Facebook exec behind ‘like’ counts disappearing. *Business Insider*. https://www.businessinsider.com/instagram-adam-mosseri-facebook-career-life-hidden-likes-project-daisy-2020-1

1. ↑ De Guzman, C. (2021, October 4). The Facebook whistleblower revealed herself on *60 Minutes*. Here’s what you need to know. *TIME*. https://time.com/6103645/facebook-whistleblower-frances-haugen/
2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 Smith, B. (2021, October 25). Inside the big Facebook leak. *The New York Times*. https://www.nytimes.com/2021/10/24/business/media/facebook-leak-frances-haugen.html
3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 Allyn, B. (2021, October 5). Here are 4 key points from the Facebook whistleblower’s testimony on Capitol Hill. *NPR*. https://www.npr.org/2021/10/05/1043377310/facebook-whistleblower-frances-haugen-congress
4. ↑ 4.00 4.01 4.02 4.03 4.04 4.05 4.06 4.07 4.08 4.09 4.10 4.11 4.12 Wells, G., Horwitz, J., & Seetharaman, D. (2021, September 14). Facebook knows Instagram is toxic for teen girls, company documents show. *The Wall Street Journal*. https://www.wsj.com/articles/facebook-knows-instagram-is-toxic-for-teen-girls-company-documents-show-11631620739?mod=article\_inline
5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 Pelley, S. (2021, October 4). Whistleblower: Facebook is misleading the public on progress against hate speech, violence, misinformation. CBS News. https://www.cbsnews.com/news/facebook-whistleblower-frances-haugen-misinformation-public-60-minutes-2021-10-03/
6. ↑ Chozick, A. (2020, January 21). This is the guy who’s taking away the Instagram likes. *The New York Times*. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/01/17/business/instagram-likes.html
7. ↑ Chiu, A. (2021, May 28). Will hiding likes on Instagram and Facebook improve users’ mental health? We asked experts. *The Washington Post*. https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/wellness/likes-facebook-instagram-mental-health/2021/05/27/132073d0-be55-11eb-9c90-731aff7d9a0d\_story.html