Social Media
Floor Speech
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Mrs. BLACKBURN. Mr. President, by now we are all very familiar with the toll that COVID-19 has taken on the American people. If there is cause for encouragement coming from all of this, it is that our collective experience has helped to destigmatize mental health problems.
The down side is that now we tend to look at everything through the lens of the pandemic. But the fact of the matter is that for millions of Americans, their private battles with mental health began well before March of 2020.
It is from that perspective that I want to examine the Wall Street Journal's truly excellent ongoing investigation into Facebook's refusal to address the serious, and at times threatening, failings of their platforms.
On September 14, the Journal published an article revealing that Facebook, Inc., executives know that their popular Instagram photo- sharing program is toxic--toxic--especially for young women and girls.
They know for a fact that 32 percent of teen girls said that, when they felt bad about their bodies, Instagram made them feel even worse.
They knew that Instagram makes body image issues worse for one in three girls. They knew that teens blame Instagram for increases in the rate of anxiety and depression. How did they know all of this? Because they, Facebook, had done their own research.
In 2019 and 2020, Facebook's in-house analysts performed a series of deep dives into teen use of Instagram that reveals that ``aspects of Instagram exacerbate each other to create a perfect storm.'' This is their awareness. That ``perfect storm'' that they mention manifests itself in the minds of teenagers in the form of intense social pressure, addiction, body image issues, eating disorders, anxiety, depression, and suicidal thoughts. This multibillion-dollar company is dragging their young users to Hell, and they are doing it on behalf of a fantasy.
Much of the problem has to do with the fact that, by its very nature, Instagram forces its users to confront the unattainable. Facebook's researchers found that young users who spend their day scrolling past filtered faces and lavish lifestyles can spiral into a so-called ``social comparison journey'' that mimics the grief cycle. Sixty-eight percent of teen girls and 40 percent of boys experience this when they use Instagram. This is their research--their research. Sixty-eight percent of teen girls and 40 percent of teen boys experience that grief cycle.
Yes. Heartbreaking, infuriating, and guess what--it gets even worse. The internal research also shows that Facebook execs at the highest levels were in on the scheme to use these traumatized young users to pull members of their households into Instagram. Younger family members were of particular interest.
This reporting is sunshine on a particularly disgusting aspect of Facebook's strategy to shape the world in their image.
Facebook often touts their compliance with COPPA and other child protection standards as proof of their commitment to online safety. Oh, but if it were only so. But the Wall Street Journal reports show that Facebook has actual knowledge that they are collecting personal information online from kids under 13 years of age. These are children. They are suffering. But in the eyes of Facebook, they are the product. They are the product. They are the product that Facebook is using to get data so that they make more money. It is sickening.
All of this and more was revealed to me and my staff by a very brave and well-informed whistleblower from within Facebook. I have been working closely with my colleague Senator Blumenthal to bring this information to light, and I thank him and his staff for being excellent advocates on behalf of young people and teenagers.
On October 5, Senator Blumenthal--Chairman Blumenthal--and I will host a hearing in the Commerce Consumer Protection, Product Safety, and Data Security Subcommittee where the whistleblower will offer an insider account of Facebook's total lack of governance and the growth- focused tunnel vision that has caused the company's leadership to ignore everything they know about the real world.
At this point, I want to emphasize a few important points we can extrapolate from what we know thus far.
Facebook's internal research revealed at the very least a strong correlation between use of their platforms and some forms of deteriorating mental health in kids and teens. But here is the larger issue: Even if Facebook didn't find proof of a causal link, it is unreasonable to assume that a company as large and successful as Facebook would ignore the social environment in which their young users live and scroll.
If you accept this general assertion, which I hold is reasonable, then you must also accept that Mark Zuckerberg and the rest of Facebook's top executives were very well aware of the real-world context behind all of that research, and the context will make you sick.
Between 2009 and 2019, the percentage of high school students who experienced ``persistent feelings of sadness or hopelessness'' increased by more than 10 percent. The percentage of high school students who seriously considered attempting suicide increased by 5 percent. Numbers regarding suicide plans and suicide attempts also trended in the wrong direction. And even less severe mental health crises can lead to risky sexual behavior, drug use, truancy, delinquency.
This is all no secret. It is publicly available information compiled by the CDC, accessible by anyone capable of executing a Google search.
It is getting harder for our kids and grandkids to make it through the day. They haven't even had a chance to live yet, and already they are experiencing hopelessness and despair. They feel so terribly about themselves that they would rather die than live another day.
Facebook has evidence that their platform facilitates these mental health spirals for young users. Yet they focused on how to trick them into thinking that scrolling through content that makes them miserable is somehow healthy and normal behavior.
Our children are not all right, and I am willing to state for the record that the people pushing success buttons at Facebook--they really do not care.
On September 21, the New York Times published an expose on the company's frankly shocking efforts to rehabilitate its image by promoting pro-Facebook content into user news feeds. By all accounts, this reporting backed the company into a corner. They were caught redhanded manipulating the flow of information, which is a charge that in other contexts has drawn fire from activists, politicians, and even Facebook itself.
In response to the well-earned backlash that Facebook received, Mark Zuckerberg chose to avoid accountability and instead made a joke about an anecdote the Times reporters included regarding a video he had posted of himself cruising around on a glorified surfboard. That is the sort of reaction you see from a person who feels that they are invincible. When they feel like they are so rich and powerful and so totally in control of their own destiny that they are the master of the universe, that no one can touch them, that is what you get.
In light of all we have seen in the past from this company and all that we have learned so far from the whistleblower, I think it is time to adjust Mr. Zuckerberg's thinking. Accountability--yes, indeed. There is bipartisan agreement that it is time for accountability to come, and I sincerely hope that Mr. Zuckerberg and the rest of his Facebook colleagues are prepared for what is coming.
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