Instagram started asking some users about their race and ethnicity
Amidst the controversy about and Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg noted that the recommended volume of content is , the app has barely any news this week. Now, the Instagram team wants to know more about the experiences of disadvantaged communities in the app.
To more fully understand the different types of experiences people can have on the platform, Instagram says it needs more demographic information. “If we don’t know people’s race or ethnicity, we’re limited in our ability to assess how our products affect different communities,” said one. .
Starting today and over the next few months, it will ask some users in the United States to share that information about them. The survey is optional and not everyone will see it. Instagram says taking the survey won’t change anything about how you use the platform, such as the reach of your posts.
Instagram does not organize the survey itself. The research and polling company YouGov will collect the data. It will encode unidentified responses and divide the information among several research bodies. Finally, Instagram will receive aggregated data. Both Instagram and its research partners – Texas Southern University, University of Central Florida, Northeastern University and Oasis . Laboratory – will be able to link the answers to individual users. YouGov will delete responses after 30 days, and research partners will do so upon request.
In June 2020, Instagram director Adam Mosseri to examine how the platform impacts the community differently, specifically in terms of harassment, verification, content distribution, and algorithmic bias. A few months later, Instagram said it was to focus on “better understanding and addressing bias in our product development and people’s experiences on Instagram.”
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