Meta, man, has seven lives

Social media is constantly changing. One thing that does not change is Meta’s strategy to stiffen policy related to sensitive content in any run-up to a congressional hearing.

Keep that in mind when you hear that the parent company of Facebook and Instagram has come up with new limits designed to reduce the amount of sensitive content available to kids.

Mark Zuckerberg and other techies from TikTok, Snap, Discord and X (note to our letter writers: X is formerly known as Twitter) are set to testify before the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee on Jan. 31. And like before, Meta has announced changes to reduce the amount of harmful content young people encounter, including predatory advertising, bullying and stuff that encourages disordered eating.

The effort by Congress follows the lead of many states, Arkansas included, that have passed laws regarding social media.

According to The Washington Post, teens can already opt to have Instagram’s algorithm recommend “less sensitive content.”

Parents will easily recognize this ability to “opt” for less-sensitive content as the same failed strategy that virtually guarantees a kid will get into exactly what they’re warned against. (That sounds a lot like pouring sugar on the ground to keep the ants away.) Further, teens can easily work around these policies by creating new accounts and not disclosing their true age.

Many Internet watchdogs say Meta’s new efforts are too little, too late. Josh Golin, executive director at Fairplay, a non-profit organization that aims to end marketing targeted at children, says Meta continually opposes safety regulations while failing to implement meaningful controls. It even financed a group to sue to block a child safety law in California in 2022.

“If Meta is really serious . . . they would get out of the way of state regulation. They’ve had more than a decade . . . and they’ve failed miserably,” said Golin.

Meta spokesperson Liza Crenshaw counters that sentiment and insists “we’re continuously building new protections . . . These updates are the result of that ongoing commitment” but “not in response to any particular event.”

Further, Facebook and Instagram will automatically place all teen accounts on the most restrictive content setting and will expand the list of blocked search terms related to suicide, self-harm and eating disorders.

As always, someone, whether it’s the company or Congress, will need to define whether a bikini is too sexually suggestive for the Internet when they’re allowed to be worn on virtually every public beach in America.

What’s more clear-cut is Meta’s strategy of announcing safety changes in advance of a government hearing that will most likely suggest safety changes. The PR people call it “getting out in front of the problem.” And Meta has PR people on the payroll.