Mark Zuckerberg’s Instagram platform used automated algorithms that suggested children for groomers and predators to follow on the app, according to a 2019 internal company document presented by the FTC during the ongoing Meta antitrust trial.
Bloomberg reports that the FTC revealed troubling evidence in its ongoing antitrust case against Mark Zuckerberg’s Meta regarding what the government claims are Instagram’s past lack of safety measures for protecting children from online predators and abusers. During court proceedings on Tuesday, the FTC presented a June 2019 internal company report titled “Inappropriate Interactions with Children on Instagram” which detailed how the social media app’s automated recommendation systems made it easier for groomers to find and exploit young victims.
According to the 2019 report, 27 percent of the follow recommendations Instagram surfaced to accounts exhibiting predatory behavior toward children were for profiles belonging to minors. In a three month period alone, the company found that 2 million accounts held by minors had been recommended to groomers. Furthermore, the report noted that minors made up seven percent of all follow recommendations made to adult users on Instagram.
