Instagram Aims to Launch Chronological Feed Option in 2022 4b5v3c Adam Mosseri

Mosseri was the pressed by lawmakers to provide more transparency into Instagram’s algorithms. 1n52k

By Reuters | Updated: 9 December 2021 09:42 IST

Instagram Aims to Launch Chronological Feed Option in 2022: Adam Mosseri

Instagram, like other social media sites, has rules against children under 13 ing the platform 3m1p6l

Highlights

Instagram and Meta, formerly Facebook, have come under intense scrutiny
Whistleblower s Haugen leaked internal documents about Instagram
Instagram has suspended plans for a version of the app for kids

ment

The head of Instagram said on Wednesday he aims to launch next year a version of the app with a chronological feed, rather than one ranked algorithmically, in his first appearance before Congress where he was grilled about children's safety online.

Instagram's Adam Mosseri was the latest tech executive pressed by lawmakers to provide more transparency into their platforms' algorithms and the impact of the content they curate and recommend for s.

We want people to have meaningful control over their experience. We've been experimenting with Favorites, a way for you to decide whose posts you want to see higher up, and we're working on another option to see posts from people you follow in chronological order.
— Instagram Comms (@InstagramComms) December 8, 2021

Instagram and its parent company s Haugen leaked internal documents about the company's approach to younger s.

Speaking before a Senate , Mosseri said the photo-sharing app had been working "for months" on the option of a feed ordered chronologically and planned to launch it in early 2022, in a significant change for the service, which uses algorithmic ranking to personalise a feed based on preferences.

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At the hearing, lawmakers pushed Mosseri for specific answers on what legislative reforms he would around kids' online safety, including on targeted advertising. In his opening remarks, Senator Richard Blumenthal said the time for self-regulation was over.

In his testimony, Mosseri called for the creation of an industry body to determine best practices to help keep young people safe online. The body, he said, should receive input from civil society, parents, and regulators to create standards on how to age, design age-appropriate experiences, and build s.

Mosseri said tech companies should have to adhere to standards by this proposed industry body to "earn" some of their Section 230 protections, referring to a key US Internet law which offers tech platforms protections from liability over content posted by s.

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'Too little, too late'

Instagram, since September, has suspended plans for a version of the app for kids, amid growing opposition to the project.

The pause followed a Wall Street Journal report that said internal documents, leaked by former Facebook employee Haugen, showed the company knew Instagram could have harmful mental health effects on teens.

Mosseri, speaking at the hearing, echoed the company's previous statements that public reporting mischaracterised the internal research. He did not commit to making permanent the pause on a kids-focused version of Instagram.

He also touted product announcements Instagram made on Tuesday on young s' safety, but Senator Marsha Blackburn called the updates "too little, too late," while Senator Blumenthal referred to the changes, including Instagram's pause on its kids app, as a "public relations tactic."

In a call after the hearing, Blackburn said she would like to see Instagram offer "today" the option for a purely chronological news feed while Blumenthal said it could be a "significant step depending on the details."

Senator Blackburn also said that her team created a fake Instagram for a 15-year-old that defaulted to a public , despite Instagram's changes to make new s for s under 16 private by default. Mosseri said this loophole had been missed on the web version of the site and would be corrected.

Instagram, like other social media sites, has rules against children under 13 ing the platform but has said it knows it has s this age. In his testimony, Mosseri called for more age verification technology at a phone level, rather than by individual tech platforms, so s have an "age-appropriate experience."

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