"According to their claims, Meta changed its policies around researching sensitive topics - like politics, children, gender, race, and harassment - six weeks after whistleblower Frances Haugen leaked internal documents that showed how Meta's own research found that Instagram can damage teen girls' mental health. These revelations, which were made public in 2021, kicked off years of hearings in Congress over child safety on the internet, an issue that remains a hot topic in global governments today."
"Jason Sattizahn, a former Meta researcher specializing in virtual reality, told The Washington Post that his boss made him delete recordings of an interview in which a teen claimed that his ten-year-old brother had been sexually propositioned on Meta's VR platform, Horizon Worlds. "Global privacy regulations make clear that if information from minors under 13 years of age is collected without verifiable parental or guardian consent, it has to be deleted," a Meta spokesperson told TechCrunch."
Two current and two former Meta employees disclosed documents to Congress alleging suppression of research on children's safety. Meta changed policies on researching sensitive topics—politics, children, gender, race and harassment—six weeks after Frances Haugen leaked documents showing Instagram harmed teen girls' mental health and prompting congressional hearings. Policy changes suggested looping lawyers into research to protect communications via attorney-client privilege and directing researchers to describe findings vaguely, avoiding terms like "not compliant" or "illegal." A former researcher said he was ordered to delete a recording in which a teen described a sexual proposition of a ten-year-old on Horizon Worlds. Meta cited privacy rules requiring deletion of minors' data collected without verifiable parental consent.
Read at TechCrunch
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