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 users.
Instagram and its parent company Meta Platforms Inc, formerly Facebook, have come under intense scrutiny over the potential impact of their services on the mental health, body image and safety of young users, including after whistleblower Frances Haugen leaked internal documents about the company’s approach to younger users.
Speaking before a Senate panel, 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 personalize a feed based on user preferences.
At the hearing, lawmakers pushed Mosseri for specific answers on what legislative reforms he would support 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 verify age, design age-appropriate experiences, and build parental controls.
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 U.S. internet law which offers tech platforms protections from liability over content posted by users.
