Facebook rebuts report calling Instagram ‘toxic’ for teen girls

Facebook Inc said body image was the only area out of 12 categories in its research into well-being issues where more teenage girls felt Instagram made things worse instead of better.

The social media giant was rebutting a Wall Street Journal report last week that called the photo-sharing app “toxic” for the group, citing a March 2020 Facebook slide presentation that showed the social media giant’s Instagram unit made body image issues worse for one in three teenage girls. It also said the same presentation showed 13% of British teens and 6% of those in the US traced suicidal thoughts to the app.