Brian Fung | @[email protected]

Brian Fung | @[email protected] @b_fung

In general, today’s hearing has been pretty productive. Very little grandstanding. Informed questions, and mostly direct answers. Even the evasive answers were revealing. — PolitiTweet.org

Brian Fung | @[email protected] @b_fung

Gotta duck out for now but keep following @claresduffy’s updates for more! — PolitiTweet.org

Brian Fung | @[email protected] @b_fung

Whatever you believe about social media's actual impact on mental wellbeing, it seems not too off-base to conclude that the Surgeon General does believe that there is, or could be, a link. That Mosseri would not even acknowledge that this is what the report says is telling. https://t.co/r5I39CO5ob — PolitiTweet.org

Brian Fung | @[email protected] @b_fung

Sullivan tried to get Mosseri to acknowledge a connection between social media and harms to mental health. Mosseri would not be pinned down, implying Sullivan was misreading the report, putting words in the Surgeon General's mouth or making logical leaps. — PolitiTweet.org

Brian Fung | @[email protected] @b_fung

Mosseri and Sen. Sullivan just had a really important exchange right now over the Surgeon General's report on youth mental health (available here): https://t.co/XO2lBksnFE — PolitiTweet.org

Brian Fung | @[email protected] @b_fung

Instagram moved away from reverse-chron feeds beginning in 2016. At the time, Instagram justified the change by saying that people were missing out on a lot of content because it wasn't recent enough to be displayed in reverse-chron. https://t.co/HgnBxTOTXj — PolitiTweet.org

Brian Fung | @[email protected] @b_fung

Mosseri continues that Instagram has been working on this "for months" (though isn't this how Insta used to be?) and that they're aiming to release it in "the first quarter of next year." — PolitiTweet.org

Brian Fung | @[email protected] @b_fung

Mosseri tells Sen. Thune that Instagram is actively working on a version of the feed that is presented in chronological order rather than by Instagram's ranking algorithm. — PolitiTweet.org

Brian Fung | @[email protected] @b_fung

Kind of wild that Sen. Blackburn's staff was able to identify an Instagram loophole that Instagram itself wasn't aware of until "hours before the hearing." @claresduffy with more: https://t.co/yh6HK7lmQ5 https://t.co/zsGsxnF41x — PolitiTweet.org

Brian Fung | @[email protected] @b_fung

Increasingly falling behind on Twitter as I juggle the liveblog and posting updates here… — PolitiTweet.org

Brian Fung | @[email protected] @b_fung

Juggling a few things here but the other thing Mosseri would not commit to was Blumenthal's request that Instagram permanently halt development of Instagram Kids, a program for 10-12 y/o children. — PolitiTweet.org

Brian Fung | @[email protected] @b_fung

Blumenthal is trying to get Mosseri to agree to an independent standards body, not an industry-led body. Mosseri is not committing to that. — PolitiTweet.org

Brian Fung | @[email protected] @b_fung

Mosseri is up now, discussing his proposed industry self-regulatory body. Social media platforms, he says, "should have to earn some of their Section 230 protections" by following the best practices listed by that body. (Again, Blumenthal seems to view self-reg as a nonstarter.) — PolitiTweet.org

Brian Fung | @[email protected] @b_fung

Like Blumenthal, Blackburn says her staff created a test account "as a 15-year-old-girl" and added that it "defaulted to public" rather than private. — PolitiTweet.org

Brian Fung | @[email protected] @b_fung

Sen. Blackburn is expressing skepticism that Take a Break will actually succeed at doing what it's named for — PolitiTweet.org

Brian Fung | @[email protected] @b_fung

Couple highlights from Sen. Blumenthal's opener: – His office repeated a test from a few months ago with a dummy Insta account and found that its algorithm still pushes pro-eating disorder content – He views Mosseri's call for industry self-regulation as a complete nonstarter — PolitiTweet.org

Brian Fung | @[email protected] @b_fung

And here we go: https://t.co/1cqaRYc3L7 — PolitiTweet.org

Brian Fung | @[email protected] @b_fung

I asked Meta if it has any more stats to share around this and the company declined to say, citing the fact that it's in early testing. — PolitiTweet.org

Brian Fung | @[email protected] @b_fung

Instagram wants you to believe that the feature is really effective: more than 90% of those who turn on the reminders keep them on. But it's silent on whether it actually leads to people logging off, or what % of teens actually opt in. https://t.co/5v13h35yGo https://t.co/7zasxXenzc — PolitiTweet.org

Brian Fung | @[email protected] @b_fung

Instagram's announcement yesterday of Take a Break — a feature that reminds users to log off every once in a while — gets its own section in the testimony. But this part is really important: Take a Break requires users to opt-in; it's not on by default. https://t.co/Ln7Eyz2qaM — PolitiTweet.org

Brian Fung | @[email protected] @b_fung

Here's Mosseri's written testimony, where he highlights steps Instagram has taken to safeguard young users but also pushes back on how some of the company's research has been presented in public: https://t.co/zEVGrRepaR — PolitiTweet.org

Brian Fung | @[email protected] @b_fung

In just a few minutes, Instagram head Adam Mosseri will testify before Senate lawmakers about Instagram's alleged harms to teens and young users. Follow along with our live updates, right here: https://t.co/oSCfkyHoxX And stream the hearing here: https://t.co/ifFKO0Cy84 — PolitiTweet.org

Brian Fung | @[email protected] @b_fung

RT @Joseph_Marks_: A new @USGAO report urges fine tuning a Pentagon program to vet the cybersecurity of defense contractors. https://t.co/r… — PolitiTweet.org

Brian Fung | @[email protected] @b_fung

@cfarivar Not with that attitude, they aren't! — PolitiTweet.org

Brian Fung | @[email protected] @b_fung

A cloud services outage preventing people from buying food is some Black Mirror plot — PolitiTweet.org

Brian Fung | @[email protected] @b_fung

RT @TwitterSafety: @b_fung When someone selects “this isn’t right,” they'll be prompted to choose a different rule that aligns with their r… — PolitiTweet.org

Brian Fung | @[email protected] @b_fung

So what happens when people start maliciously telling Twitter "that isn't right" under this new reporting system? Will that interfere with Twitter's ability to proactively detect new trends in harassment and misinfo, as the test is intended to do? https://t.co/fCHcTZjBJz https://t.co/0rsmpUcMDo — PolitiTweet.org

Brian Fung | @[email protected] @b_fung

@dnvolz @ByronTau Way to go, Byron! — PolitiTweet.org

Brian Fung | @[email protected] @b_fung

Arguably mid- and low-level WH personnel, too. — PolitiTweet.org

Brian Fung | @[email protected] @b_fung

Twitter is acknowledging a wave of "coordinated" and "malicious" activity on its platform as right-wing activists say they've been "weaponizing" the site's new private media policy: https://t.co/jK9BsATQHq — PolitiTweet.org