{"id":857047,"date":"2021-10-07T15:58:35","date_gmt":"2021-10-07T19:58:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=857047"},"modified":"2021-10-07T15:58:36","modified_gmt":"2021-10-07T19:58:36","slug":"exclusive-rep-ken-buck-demands-zuckerberg-hand-over-research-into-instagrams-effects-on-eating-disorders-child-exploitation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/exclusive-rep-ken-buck-demands-zuckerberg-hand-over-research-into-instagrams-effects-on-eating-disorders-child-exploitation\/","title":{"rendered":"EXCLUSIVE: Rep. Ken Buck Demands Zuckerberg Hand Over Research Into Instagram\u2019s Effects On Eating Disorders, Child Exploitation"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"float:left\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">34<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fexclusive-rep-ken-buck-demands-zuckerberg-hand-over-research-into-instagrams-effects-on-eating-disorders-child-exploitation%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=857047&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><div><\/div>\n<p>Colorado Republican Rep. Ken Buck demanded Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg hand over research into Instagram\u2019s effects on teen users in a letter sent Thursday and obtained by the Daily Caller News Foundation.<\/p>\n<p>Leaked documents <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wsj.com\/articles\/facebook-knows-instagram-is-toxic-for-teen-girls-company-documents-show-11631620739\">published<\/a> by The Wall Street Journal in September detailed some of Facebook\u2019s research into how its image-sharing platform Instagram <a href=\"https:\/\/dailycaller.com\/2021\/09\/14\/facebook-instagram-harmful-teen-girls\/\">affects<\/a>&nbsp;the mental health of teen girls, including how the platform can exacerbate suicidal tendencies and contribute to eating disorders. The research showed, among other things, that Instagram contributed much more to negative mental health than other social media platforms.<\/p>\n<p>Buck, who serves as Ranking Member of the House Judiciary Committee\u2019s antitrust subcommittee, urged Zuckerberg to release all of Facebook\u2019s research into Instagram\u2019s effects on teen mental health, requesting information on how the platform contributes to eating disorders, anxiety, depression, suicidal tendencies and other mental health issues.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYour company\u2019s hypocrisy and immense apathy toward the detrimental impacts Instagram has on children\u2019s wellbeing is astounding,\u201d Buck wrote. <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/dailycaller.com\/2021\/10\/04\/ken-buck-big-tech-antitrust-republican\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">(RELATED: Rep. Ken Buck Says Antitrust Bills Tackle Big Tech\u2019s \u2018Fundamental\u2019 Problems)<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Buck also requested internal company studies on how Instagram\u2019s algorithms promote overly sexualized portrayals of minors. Facebook removed 1.4 million pieces of content in the second quarter of 2021 it deemed to be sexually exploiting children, according to its transparency <a href=\"https:\/\/transparency.fb.com\/data\/community-standards-enforcement\/child-nudity-and-sexual-exploitation\/facebook\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">reports<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><a title=\"View Rep. Ken Buck Letter To Mark Zuckerberg on Scribd\" href=\"https:\/\/www.scribd.com\/document\/530711780\/Rep-Ken-Buck-Letter-To-Mark-Zuckerberg#from_embed\">Rep. Ken Buck Letter To Mark Zuckerberg<\/a> by <a title=\"View Daily Caller News Foundation&#039;s profile on Scribd\" href=\"https:\/\/www.scribd.com\/user\/292804634\/Daily-Caller-News-Foundation#from_embed\">Daily Caller News Foundation<\/a> on Scribd<\/p>\n<p>Buck\u2019s request is considerably beyond the scope of the documents leaked to The Wall Street Journal, and Facebook has previously been reluctant in sharing information on the inner workings of its platform with third parties, <a href=\"https:\/\/dailycaller.com\/2021\/08\/04\/facebook-new-york-university-center-for-cybersecurity-ad-observatory-project\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">removing<\/a> the accounts of New York University researchers who were scraping Facebook user data to study political ads on the platform.<\/p>\n<p>When reached for comment on the letter, Facebook pointed the Daily Caller News Foundation to a <a href=\"https:\/\/about.fb.com\/news\/2021\/09\/research-teen-well-being-and-instagram\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">post<\/a> by Facebook\u2019s Head of Research Pratiti Raychoudhury that pushed back on The Wall Street Journal\u2019s conclusion that Instagram was harmful to children. Mark Zuckerberg personally <a href=\"https:\/\/dailycaller.com\/2021\/10\/05\/mark-zuckerberg-facebook-instagram-frances-haugen\/\">addressed<\/a> issues raised by the leaked research in a blog post Tuesday, disputing the media\u2019s characterization of it.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAs we wrote in our Newsroom&nbsp;post&nbsp;explaining this: \u2018The research actually demonstrated that many teens we heard from feel that using Instagram helps them when they are struggling with the kinds of hard moments and issues teenagers have always faced,\u2019\u201d Zuckerberg wrote. \u201cIn fact, in 11 of 12 areas on the slide referenced by the Journal \u2014 including serious areas like loneliness, anxiety, sadness and eating issues \u2014 more teenage girls who said they struggled with that issue also said Instagram made those difficult times better rather than worse.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Facebook executives <a href=\"https:\/\/dailycaller.com\/2021\/09\/30\/instagram-facebook-marsha-blackburn-richard-blumenthal\/\">Antigone Davis<\/a>&nbsp;and <a href=\"https:\/\/dailycaller.com\/2021\/09\/21\/mike-lee-josh-hawley-facebook\/\">Steve Satterfield<\/a>&nbsp;both refused to commit to release the full extent of Facebook\u2019s research into Instagram\u2019s harms when questioned by the Senate.<\/p>\n<p>Sens. Richard Blumenthal and Marsha Blackburn are currently <a href=\"https:\/\/dailycaller.com\/2021\/09\/27\/facebook-instagram-josh-hawley-marsha-blackburn\/\">conducting<\/a>&nbsp;an investigation into Facebook\u2019s knowledge of Instagram\u2019s harms with help of Facebook whistleblower Frances Haugen, who <a href=\"https:\/\/dailycaller.com\/2021\/10\/05\/facebook-whistleblower-frances-haugen-senate\/\">testified<\/a>&nbsp;before a Senate Commerce subcommittee Tuesday.<\/p>\n<p>Content created by The Daily Caller News Foundation is available without charge to any eligible news publisher that can provide a large audience. For licensing opportunities of our original content, please contact <a href=\"mailto:licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org\">licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Colorado Republican Rep. Ken Buck demanded Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg hand over research into Instagram\u2019s effects on teen users in a letter sent Thursday and obtained by the Daily Caller &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2315279,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-857047","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/857047","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=857047"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/857047\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2315279"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=857047"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=857047"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=857047"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}