Klobuchar, Baldwin Request
Information on How Instagram
Promotes Posts Glorifying Eating Disorders to Younger Users
WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senators Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.), Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.), and Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.) sent a
letter to Facebook expressing concern that content on Instagram may promote eating disorders among young users, specifically teenagers and girls.
In the letter, the senators highlighted Facebook Whistleblower Frances Haugen’s testimony to the Senate Commerce Committee recently, noting Haugen’s belief that “Facebook knows that they are leading young users to anorexia content.”
The senators also wrote that “Ms. Haugen’s complaints to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) also indicate that Facebook has additional information about its impact on eating disorders that Facebook has not shared with policymakers, parents, or the public.”
They continued later in the letter: “The stakes here are incredibly high — studies have found that eating disorders have one of the highest mortality rates of any mental illness. We have long fought to ensure Americans can access treatment services for eating disorders, but more must be done to protect our kids from being exposed to content on Facebook and Instagram that glorifies and promotes eating disorders.”
Senators Capito, Klobuchar, and Baldwin have been long-standing leaders in ensuring Americans can access treatment services for eating disorders. They cosponsored the bipartisan Anna Westin Act, which included provisions to increase training and education on eating disorders and ensure parity for insurance coverage of residential treatment of eating disorders. Provisions of this bill were ultimately signed into law in 2016 as part of the 21st Century Cures Act.
The bill was named in honor of Anna Westin of Chaska, Minnesota, who was diagnosed with anorexia at the age of 16. Despite the urgency of her condition, her family was informed that they had to wait until their insurance company ‘certified’ Anna’s treatment, ultimately delaying and limiting the treatment Anna received. After struggling with the disease for five years, Anna died at the age of 21.