Facebook and Instagram's parent company - Meta is working with the Center for Open Science. This collaboration is intended to study how social media affects people's well-being.
They plan to give researchers special data that protects users' privacy. This move is part of Meta's effort to understand the link between social media and how people feel, making sure user privacy is respected.
For a long time, researchers have wanted more access to social media data for their studies. This need has grown as Congress focuses more on how social media impacts mental health.
Meta has already been making some data like public posts and comments easier for researchers to look at with its Meta Content Library.
This week, Mark Zuckerberg, Meta's CEO, will speak in Congress about online safety for kids.
Other big social media companies such as TikTok and Discord will be there too. Before this meeting, Meta announced new safety rules. For example, people under 16 on Facebook and Instagram will automatically not get messages from adults they don't follow.
Parents will also be able to exercise good control over their teen’s privacy settings. Moreover, Meta is also adamant on preventing teens from watching harmful content. This included topics like eating disorders and self-harm.
But Meta is facing criticism for not doing enough to protect children in the past. Documents from a lawsuit showed that they were slow to take action.
Other social media companies are also improving safety before the Congress meeting. One company, X, is hiring 100 people in Texas to focus on keeping users safe.
They're also talking to Congress about dealing with harmful content. Recently, X had to deal with a big problem when fake inappropriate images of Taylor Swift spread online, which even got the White House's attention.
Photo: Digital Information World - AIgen/HumanEdited
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They plan to give researchers special data that protects users' privacy. This move is part of Meta's effort to understand the link between social media and how people feel, making sure user privacy is respected.
For a long time, researchers have wanted more access to social media data for their studies. This need has grown as Congress focuses more on how social media impacts mental health.
Meta has already been making some data like public posts and comments easier for researchers to look at with its Meta Content Library.
This week, Mark Zuckerberg, Meta's CEO, will speak in Congress about online safety for kids.
Other big social media companies such as TikTok and Discord will be there too. Before this meeting, Meta announced new safety rules. For example, people under 16 on Facebook and Instagram will automatically not get messages from adults they don't follow.
Parents will also be able to exercise good control over their teen’s privacy settings. Moreover, Meta is also adamant on preventing teens from watching harmful content. This included topics like eating disorders and self-harm.
But Meta is facing criticism for not doing enough to protect children in the past. Documents from a lawsuit showed that they were slow to take action.
Other social media companies are also improving safety before the Congress meeting. One company, X, is hiring 100 people in Texas to focus on keeping users safe.
They're also talking to Congress about dealing with harmful content. Recently, X had to deal with a big problem when fake inappropriate images of Taylor Swift spread online, which even got the White House's attention.
Read next: OpenAI Quietly Rolls Out New Customized GPT Feature
