Safety vs. Illusion: Meta's Contradictory Social Media Narrative

1. Meta represents to the public that its Social Media Platforms are designed to support young users’ well-being.

120. For years, Meta has claimed that its top priority is well-being, and that Instagram and Facebook are safe and age-appropriate Platforms for young users.

121. Meta’s public messaging is intended to convey that its Social Media Platforms are carefully designed to be safe and suitable for young users.

122. Meta represents to the public, including investors and analysts, that it prioritizes safety. For example, during a public earnings call on January 29, 2020, Sandberg stated, “[we] have to keep people safe and give them control over their experience on our apps. And we are.”

123. Later that year, on October 29, 2020, Sandberg explained during a different public earnings call that “[w]hile we continue to invest in helping businesses, we are equally focused on keeping our platform safe.”

124. Other top executives made similar assurances through public appearances, statements to the media, and statements to lawmakers.

125. As reported by Quartz, at a technology event in the spring of 2018, Instagram Director of Fashion Partnerships Eva Chen publicly stated that Meta’s “entire focus is focusing on the wellbeing of the community” and that “[m]aking the community a safer place, a place where people feel good, is a huge priority for Instagram.”

126. In June 2019, Mosseri (Head of Instagram) told CBS in an interview that teen well-being is a top priority. And two years later, in May 2021, Mosseri minimized Instagram’s negative impact on teens, characterizing it to reporters as “quite small,” as reported by the Wall Street Journal that September.

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128. Meta has also sought to persuade lawmakers that its Platforms are safe for youth. On September 30, 2021, Meta executive Antigone Davis testified to Congress, “[w]e have put in place multiple protections to create safe and age-appropriate experiences for people between the ages of 13 and 17.”

129. Meta has also sought to reassure the public that it prioritizes youth safety on its own blogs and Platform websites. On December 7, 2021, Mosseri wrote in a blog post entitled “Raising the Standard for Protecting Teens and Supporting Parents Online” that “[a]t Instagram, we’ve been working for a long time to keep young people safe on the app.”

130. Similarly, Instagram’s website characterized the Instagram app as a “safe and supportive community” for its users.

131. Likewise, a blog post from December 15, 2022 on about.instagram.com bears the title “Continuing to Keep Instagram Safe and Secure.”

132. [Redacted]

133. Through these and other public messages, Meta has intentionally created the false impression that its Platforms are safe for young users, and that Meta prioritizes safety over user engagement.