Instagram chief Adam Mosseri will testify before Congress

According to the New York Times, Instagram chief Adam Mosseri will testify next month before Congress about his app’s impacts on younger users.

Mr. Mosseri's testimony follows those of Antigone Davis, the global head of safety at Meta, the parent company of Instagram and Facebook, and Frances Haugen, a former employee turned whistleblower, earlier this year. Ms. Haugen’s revelations about the social networking company, particularly those about Facebook and Instagram’s research into its effects on some teenagers and young girls, have spurred criticism, inquiries from politicians, and investigations from regulators.

Ms. Davis told Congress in September that the company disputed the premise that Instagram was harmful to teenagers and noted that the leaked research did not have causal data. However, following Ms. Haugen's testimony last month, Sen. Richard Blumenthal called on Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg to appear before the committee to correct any “inaccurate testimony” provided by Davis.

In a later letter, Blumenthal extended the invitation to Mosseri as well. “Parents across America are deeply disturbed by ongoing reports that Facebook knows that Instagram can cause destructive and lasting harms to many teens and children, especially to their mental health and wellbeing. Those parents, and the twenty million teens that use your app, have a right to know the truth about the safety of Instagram”, he said in the letter.