Instagram Soon Launches Feed Changes In Chronological Order For Users

Instagram is rolling out a new, safer feature for teens. (photo credit: pixabay)

JAKARTA – Adam Mosseri, Head of Instagram said on Wednesday, December 8 that next year he wants to launch a version of the app with a chronological feed, rather than one that is algorithmically ranked. She made this point in her first appearance before the US Congress where she was asked questions about children's safety online, including on her platform.

Adam Mosseri of Instagram is the latest tech executive to be pressured by lawmakers to provide more transparency into their platform's algorithms and impact the content they curate and recommend to users.

Instagram and its parent company Meta Platforms Inc, formerly known as Facebook Inc., have come under intense scrutiny over the potential impact of their services on the mental health, body image, and safety of young users. This includes the aftermath of a report by whistleblower Frances Haugen leaking internal documents about the company's approach to younger users.

As reported by Reuters, while speaking before a Senate panel, Mosseri said the photo-sharing app had been working "for months" on a chronologically ordered feed option and planned to launch in early 2022. This is a significant change for the service, which has been it uses algorithmic rankings to personalize feeds based on user preferences.

At the hearing, lawmakers pushed Mosseri for specific answers about what legislative reforms he would support around online safety for children, including targeted advertising. In his opening remarks, Senator Richard Blumenthal said the time for social media platforms to self-regulate is 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 agency, he said, should receive input from civil society, parents, and regulators to set standards on how to verify age, design age-appropriate experiences, and establish parental controls.

Mosseri said technology companies must comply with standards by the proposed industry body in order to "earn" some Section 230 protection, referring to a major US internet law that offers technology platforms protection from liability for content posted by users.

Instagram, since September, has suspended plans to launch a version of the app for children, amid growing opposition to the project.

The pause follows a Wall Street Journal report that said internal documents, leaked by former Facebook employee Haugen, showed the company knew Instagram could have harmful mental health effects on teens.

Mosseri, speaking at the hearing, echoed the company's earlier assertion that public reporting misrepresents their internal research. He's not committed to making a permanent break on the kid-focused version of Instagram.

She also touted a product announcement Instagram made last Tuesday about the safety of young users, but Senator Marsha Blackburn called the update "too little, too late," while Senator Blumenthal called the changes, including Instagram's pause on her children's app, "too little, too late." "public relations tactics."

In a phone call after the hearing, Blackburn said he would like to see "today" Instagram offer the option for a purely chronological news feed while Blumenthal said it could be a "significant step depending on the details."

Senator Blackburn also said that his team created fake Instagram accounts for 15-year-olds that use public accounts by default, although Instagram has changed to create new accounts for users under 16 to private by default. Mosseri said this loophole was missed in the web version of the site and would be fixed.

Instagram, like other social media sites, has rules prohibiting children under 13 from joining the platform, but they say they have users at this age.

In his testimony, Mosseri called for more age-verifying technology at the phone level, rather than by individual technology platforms, so users have an "age-appropriate experience."