Facebook keeps amplifying the bad for its own good

Another day, more bad news for Facebook. Facebook's own research team identified that Instagram followers of the biggest celebrities such as Kim Kardashian and Justin Bieber experience more negative feelings.

Seeing more celebrity content in the Instagram feed made users feel more negative comparisons with their own lives. But even if Instagram users wanted to get away from that kind of content, they just can’t: almost half of it comes from celebrities. Naturally, this is most seriously affecting the mental health of teenage users most of all.

This story is just everywhere you look:

• Celebrity Instagram content linked to negative feelings, Facebook researchers say

• Facebook research shows company knew of Instagram harm to teens, senators say 

• Facebook Knows Instagram Is Toxic for Teen Girls, Company Documents Show

Under this intense criticism, Facebook is firing back with highlights from its research showing positive impacts from Instagram on teenagers. 

"Our research showed that many teens who are struggling say that Instagram helps them deal with many of the hard issues that are so common to being a teen," Facebook’s Global Head of Safety Antigone Davis said.

(Of course, Facebook’s Global Head of Safety would say that. It’s a bait and switch, though: teenagers saying that Instagram is good for them is not the same as Instagram actually being good for teenagers.

No matter how hard they tried, U.S. senators just could not make a dent in this Silicon Valley titan’s steely exterior, though (ie. Facebook shrugged). “The reality is that kids are already online, and we believe that developing age-appropriate experiences designed specifically for them is far better for parents than where we are today,” Davis explained. 

Facebook was planning to attract a younger audience, so they spent 7 months developing Instagram Kids. Only under the pressure from the Senate and the negative publicity from the media is Facebook putting this on hold. Not cancelling, just on hold.

One way Facebook is able to cope with bad news like that is very straightforward: it uses its news feed to showcase positive stories about itself. “Project Amplify” shocked even Facebook executives!

Is Facebook’s founder crazy?

Sure, Facebook is despicable. But, here is something interesting.

While I was collecting the links for this article, I also checked how many tracking code snippets (the code which tracks your movement online) are on each of these media websites. 

• Reuters.com - 38 trackers

• Bloomberg.com - 8 trackers

• WSJ.com - 79 trackers

• Techcrunch.com - 16 trackers

• Foxbusiness.com - 26 trackers

While these sites (and respective owners) are reporting about the harm Facebook is causing society, they themselves are feeding Facebook (and many others) with data and are benefiting from it as well.

Because what business wouldn't like to know everything about their customers and how to advertise and sell to them?

Facebook products are not good for you, but they are awesome for Facebook and its marketing customers. How awesome? $29.15 billion-of-profit awesome.

Until Facebook’s advertising partners can profit from Facebook’s ecosystem by precisely targeting their customers, nothing will change. And that's the recurrent pattern.