Some projects have been tabled while executives deal with the fallout. An initiative to introduce an election oversight committee has been delayed, said two people with knowledge of the effort.
On Wednesday, after the meetings with the “Strategic Response” teams and other executives, Facebook publicly released two research reports that The Journal had partly based its stories on, ahead of the Senate hearing on Thursday.
Facebook annotated the reports, appearing to downplay the results. Next to one slide in the research that said “teens who struggle with mental health say Instagram makes it worse,” the company added that the headline was imprecise. Instead, it wrote, “The headline should be clarified to be: ‘Teens who have lower life satisfaction more likely to say Instagram makes their mental health or the way they feel about themselves worse than teens who are satisfied with their lives.’”
After the annotations became public, Facebook researchers messaged one another in disbelief, said two employees. Many felt that the notes threw them — and their methodology — under the bus, the people said.
Facebook has also moved to stem future leaks.
One Facebook researcher said a colleague was contacted by the legal team in the past week and was asked about a research report that he published more than two years ago. The legal team appeared to be hunting for any potentially incriminating research that might be shared with reporters, he said.
His manager had advised him not to run any queries searching for specific terms on his old work or do anything that could appear suspicious, he said.
Now, he said he was told, was a good time to take a vacation.
Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/10/01/technology/facebook-instagram-teenagers.html
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