Instagram's CEO, Adam Mosseri, said that the company will take further steps to examine how its policies are affecting black users. According to The Verge's latest report, a statement was released by Mosseri saying that the social media platform will review how it recommends content, deals with harassment, and verifies accounts, to take steps to "better support the black community."
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Although he laid out some key areas where the media platform has received complaints from black users about bias, specifics about what the Facebook-owned photo-sharing app will do were not provided by the CEO.
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"The irony that we're a platform that stands for elevating Black voices, but at the same time Black people are often harassed, afraid of being 'shadowbanned', and disagree with many content takedowns, is not lost on me," said Mosseri in an Instagram blog. According to the Instagram Blog, it will focus on "ensuring Black Voices are Heard".
1/ We stand in solidarity with the Black community. But that’s not enough. Words are not enough. That’s why we’re committed to looking at the ways our policies, tools, and processes impact Black people and other underrepresented groups on Instagram.https://t.co/rVM3E0rFHA — Adam Mosseri (@mosseri) June 15, 2020
Mosseri said that since an incredible movement is seen happening around the globe, the social media platform identified important conversations that revealed communities mobilizing on Instagram to express solidarity and demand justice, elevate Black voices, raise awareness for Black people's equality everywhere, and support Black-owned businesses.
Instagram to examine how its policies affect Black content creators
Mosseri said that the social media platform will focus on four areas: distribution, harassment, verification, and algorithmic bias. He said that Instagram will look at specific safety issues its black users' experience on and off the platform and how black users can be protected to address the harassment issue.
Since the company received questions about whether the verification process favors certain groups, Instagram will also examine whether the criteria it uses to verify users are exclusive. To see if Instagram's algorithm has bias involved, it will review how its content is filtered and will also be more transparent about how it distributes the posts of its users.
According to Mosseri, the social media platform will check if its decision-making is affected by the algorithmic bias by taking a harder look at it. Instagram will also observe and examine if underrepresented groups are served equally and properly.
"Our goal is that Instagram is a place where everyone feels safe, supported, and free to express themselves, and I'm hoping this work will get us closer to that goal," he said.
