SAN FRANCISCO: Meta said Tuesday it will start hiding inappropriate content from teenagers’ accounts on Instagram and Facebook, including posts about suicide, self-harm and eating disorders.
The social media giant based in Menlo Park, California, said in a blog post that while it already aims not to recommend such “age-inappropriate” material to teens, now it also won’t show it in their feeds, even if it is shared by an account they follow.
“We want teens to have safe, age-appropriate experiences on our apps,” Meta said.
Teen users — provided they did not lie about their age when they signed up for Instagram or Facebook — will also see their accounts placed on the most restrictive settings on the platforms, and they will be blocked from searching for terms that might be harmful.
“Take the example of someone posting about their ongoing struggle with thoughts of self-harm. This is an important story, and can help destigmatize these issues, but it’s a complex topic and isn’t necessarily suitable for all young people,” Meta said. “Now, we’ll start to remove this type of content from teens’ experiences on Instagram and Facebook, as well as other types of age-inappropriate content.”
Meta’s announcement comes as the company faces lawsuits from dozens of US states that accuse it of harming young people and contributing to the youth mental health crisis by knowingly and deliberately designing features on Instagram and Facebook that addict children to its platforms.
Critics said Meta’s moves don’t go far enough.
“Today’s announcement by Meta is yet another desperate attempt to avoid regulation and an incredible slap in the face to parents who have lost their kids to online harms on Instagram,” said Josh Golin, executive director of the children’s online advocacy group Fairplay. “If the company is capable of hiding pro-suicide and eating disorder content, why have they waited until 2024 to announce these changes?”
Meta to hide posts about suicide, eating disorders from teens’ Instagram and Facebook feeds
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Meta to hide posts about suicide, eating disorders from teens’ Instagram and Facebook feeds
- Meta’s announcement comes as the company faces accusations of harming young people and contributing to the youth mental health crisis
BBC says will fight Trump's $10 bn defamation lawsuit
LONDON: The BBC said Tuesday it would fight a $10-billion lawsuit brought by US President Donald Trump against the British broadcaster over a documentary that edited his 2021 speech ahead of the US Capitol riot.
“As we have made clear previously, we will be defending this case,” a BBC spokesperson said in a statement sent to AFP, adding the company would not be making “further comment on ongoing legal proceedings.”
The lawsuit, filed in federal court in Miami, seeks “damages in an amount not less than $5,000,000,000” for each of two counts against the British broadcaster, for alleged defamation and violation of the Florida Deceptive and Unfair Trade Practices Act.
The video that triggered the lawsuit spliced together two separate sections of Trump’s speech on January 6, 2021 in a way that made it appear he explicitly urged supporters to attack the Capitol, where lawmakers were certifying Joe Biden’s 2020 election win.
The lawsuit comes as the UK government on Tuesday launched the politically sensitive review of the BBC’s Royal Charter, which outlines the corporation’s funding and governance and needs to be renewed in 2027.
As part of the review, it launched a public consultation on issues including the role of “accuracy” in the BBC’s mission and contentious reforms to the corporation’s funding model, which currently relies on a mandatory fee for anyone in the country who watches television.
Minister Stephen Kinnock stressed after the lawsuit was filed that the UK government “is a massive supporter of the BBC.”
The BBC has “been very clear that there is no case to answer in terms of Mr.Trump’s accusation on the broader point of libel or defamation. I think it’s right the BBC stands firm on that point,” Kinnock told Sky News on Tuesday.
Trump, 79, had said the lawsuit was imminent, claiming the BBC had “put words in my mouth,” even positing that “they used AI or something.”
The documentary at issue aired last year before the 2024 election, on the BBC’s “Panorama” flagship current affairs program.
Apology letter
“The formerly respected and now disgraced BBC defamed President Trump by intentionally, maliciously, and deceptively doctoring his speech in a brazen attempt to interfere in the 2024 Presidential Election,” a spokesperson for Trump’s legal team said in a statement to AFP.
“The BBC has a long pattern of deceiving its audience in coverage of President Trump, all in service of its own leftist political agenda,” the statement added.
The British Broadcasting Corporation, whose audience extends well beyond the United Kingdom, faced a period of turmoil last month after a media report brought renewed attention to the edited clip.
The scandal led the BBC director general, Tim Davie, and the organization’s top news executive, Deborah Turness, to resign.
Trump’s lawsuit says the edited speech in the documentary was “fabricated and aired by the Defendants one week before the 2024 Presidential Election in a brazen attempt to interfere in and influence the Election’s outcome to President Trump’s detriment.”
The BBC has denied Trump’s claims of legal defamation, though BBC chairman Samir Shah has sent Trump a letter of apology.
Shah also told a UK parliamentary committee last month the broadcaster should have acted sooner to acknowledge its mistake after the error was disclosed in a memo, which was leaked to The Daily Telegraph newspaper.
The BBC lawsuit is the latest in a string of legal actions Trump has taken against media companies in recent years, several of which have led to multi-million-dollar settlements.
