SHOCKING findings from our friends a FairPlay for Kids show yet again we can’t rely on tech companies to regulate themselves. Every day of inaction from Congress means more and more young people are harmed by Big Tech’s unregulated, predatory business model.Instagram’s recommendation algorithms push pro-anorexia and disordered eating content to millions of users, including those whose bios identify them as under 13 years old, according to a new report by Fairplay, an advocacy organization focused on children’s digital wellness. The report states that nearly 20 million Instagram users are “fed content from Instagram’s Pro-Eating Disorder bubble,” and that many of them are teenagers or younger. 

To understand the reach of pro–eating disorder content, researchers identified 153 “seed accounts” that were public, had over 1,000 followers, and expressly advocated for disordered eating. They calculated that approximately 1.6 million Instagram users followed one of these accounts, and 88,655 followed three or more. The researchers found that almost 20 million Instagram users followed at least one of those 88,655 accounts, and might be prompted to follow the seed accounts because they had a mutual connection.

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