Ms Frances Haugen:

I want to unpack that quote about how Instagram leads from things such as healthy recipes and healthy eating to topics such as anorexia. Facebook has reproduced at least four times - perhaps more, as those are just documents I am aware of - what is basically the same study. Facebook has said it publicly previously. Mr. Nick Clegg, who I believe has some new fancy title at Facebook as head of global something or other, wrote a long blog post last year and I encourage the committee to read it, because I find it quite condescending. It shows the type of attitude Facebook has towards the public. It effectively said: "You have been complaining about extreme content on Facebook, but you know what? You picked your friends, you picked your interests. This isn't on us. It takes two to tango."

However, even as he said that, Facebook had multiple instances of studies that took a blanket count and followed a couple of innocuous things. Perhaps on Instagram they searched for healthy eating and followed a couple of topics. Then all they did was click on the content Facebook, Instagram and Meta gave them and came back the next day and did it again. The nature of engagement they strengthen is that the algorithms are not smart. They are just scanning for what one might engage with, what is going to draw one in.

The reality is that people develop things like anorexia and start cutting or engaging in other forms of self-mutilation is that there is something in our brains that is drawn to these topics. Adolescent children are going through major phases of physical change, and that can be stressful. Kids are following topics like healthy eating and just engaging with the content. There is no two tangoing here; this is just the algorithms. As they engage with it, they get led to more and more extreme content. That is super dangerous. These are young, impressionable children who instead of being supported as they go through a stressful experience in life are being drawn into an addictive platform that ends up hurting their mental health and even their bodies. Anorexia is not about girls that are too skinny. It is about women 60 years from now who are going to walk the Earth with brittle bones because of choices Facebook made or a 35-year-old woman who yearns for a child who cannot have one. That is what anorexia is. I encourage the committee to step in and to have a strong voice. The regulator should be adequately funded and supported so that it can be tough and make sure that these platforms work for the people and bring out the best in us.