Haugen’s argument

Meta has misled young teenage girls to damaging content on weight-loss. Through its suggested search engine prompts, Instagram has tailored the in-app experience to better align with interests of its users. 

However, users struggling with eating disorders have been led to content that has further intensified their situations and has caused them to feel more worse about themselves. 

Teenage girls will be locked in a rhythm of continuously scrolling through supposed ‘helpful’ weight-loss content which only further harms their mental health. 

Meta is aware through its own research that this is a standing issue: about 13% of teenager girls claim that Instagram worsens thoughts of ‘suicide and self injury.’ 17% claim that the app makes ‘eating issues’ worse. One in three teen girls feel that the platform worsens their body image issues.