Press Releases

WASHINGTON, DC – On Tuesday, Congresswoman Lori Trahan (MA-03) and Congresswoman Kathy Castor (FL-14), members of the House Energy and Commerce Committee’s Innovation, Data, and Commerce Subcommittee, wrote to Instagram CEO Adam Mosseri to express deep concerns with the social media platform’s development and future launch of the “Friend Map” feature. This feature would allow users to see their friends’ locations in real time, putting young users’ privacy and safety at risk.

“It is paramount that social media platforms such as Instagram keep privacy, safety and the best interests of its young users at the center of all designs, and we do not believe that a “Friend Map” feature would meet those criteria,” the lawmakers write. “Geolocating minors is not an essential function to your platform. In fact, geolocation surveillance of minors is an unnecessary violation of privacy. Furthermore, the public sharing of that information puts young users at risk of further surveillance, violence and unsolicited interactions.”

“In short, it is apparent that the advancement of a new Friend Map Instagram feature would violate young users’ privacy and put them at risk for unintended consequences,” the lawmakers continued. “It is time that social media platforms, like Instagram, end their vast collection of data without users’ consent and exposure of minors to stalking, sextortion, and worse.”

The full text of the letter is available here.

“My generation has yet to see any meaningful and long-term implementation of safeguards on Meta’s Instagram and is reeling from the harms driven by Meta’s failure to act. Meta’s new Friend Map feature would not just enable but incentivize unrelenting data collection of its youngest users that would ramp up the prevalence of risky or unsafe environments and fuel our exploitation. The feature would also perpetuate social isolation as research suggests location-based apps can be detrimental to teens’ mental health. I’m grateful that our coalition has the opportunity to work with Representatives Castor and Trahan to demand accountability from Meta for continuing to innovate against our well-being,” Zamaan Qureshi, Co-Chair, Design It For Us.

In 2021, following reports that Instagram was planning to launch a version of Instagram for children, Trahan, Castor, and Senators Edward J. Markey (D-MA) and Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) called on the company to abandon its plans. In response to blowback from lawmakers, advocates, and parents, Facebook announced plans later that year to “pause” its plans to develop an Instagram for Kids. The following year, Trahan, Castor, Markey, and Blumenthal pressed Meta executives on the proliferation of pro-eating disorder content on Instagram. Last December, Trahan and Castor led a request from lawmakers demanding answers from Meta on investigative reports showing the company profiting from Instagram serving sexual and exploitative content to users with interests in content featuring children.

###