After Leaked Documents, US States Probe Instagram's Impact on Children
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Leaked documents show that Meta has been bending to censorship to keep content, however harmful, accessible to children.
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Could children be victims of Meta's negligence?
Meta, Instagram's parent company, is under scrutiny by a consortium of US states due to allegations that the company provides access to the photo-sharing platform to children despite knowing and acknowledging potential harm, according to officials on Thursday.
The members of the consortium are not yet disclosed; however, it includes top law enforcement officials and legal advisors from New York, Colorado and beyond.
After rebranding Facebook as "Meta," the company is embarking on another reputational crisis - a serious one at that. Recently, a whistleblower has leaked internal documents which expose executives' knowledge of potential harms on the site. However, children continue to be exposed to harmful content.
The leaked documents expose that Mark Zuckerberg himself has dodged state censors, keeping the harmful content running in the name of entertainment and keeping users engaged.
"Facebook, now Meta, has failed to protect young people on its platforms and instead chose to ignore or, in some cases, double down on known manipulations that pose a real threat to physical and mental health -- exploiting children in the interest of profit," Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey said in a statement.
