Senator Richard Blumenthal calls on Facebook executive to “end finsta” at hearing

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Sen. Richard Blumental asked a senior Facebook executive on Thursday whether the company “would commit to ending ‘finsta'” – apparently oblivious to the term’s true meaning.

Blumenthal (D-Conn.) Interviewed Facebook’s global chief security officer Antigone Davis in a Senate committee hearing that followed a Wall Street Journal report that internal company research had revealed that her Instagram platform exacerbates “body image issues for one in three teenagers.” girls. “

There were several seconds of silence before Davis answered.

“Senator, again, let me explain,” she began. “We don’t actually – we don’t actually do ‘finsta’.

“What ‘finsta’ refers to are young people creating accounts where they may want more privacy,” she continued. “You referred to this as the privacy of their parents. In my interaction with teens, what I’ve found is that sometimes they like to have an account where they can only interact with a small group of friends.

Blumenthal, head of the Senate Commerce Committee’s subcommittee on consumer protection, product safety and data security, urged Davis near the end of the three-hour hearing.

Sen. Richard Blumental bizarrely asked Facebook's global chief safety officer Antigone Davis to end “finstas” during a Senate committee on the company's social media platform for teens.
Senator Richard Blumental has bizarrely called on Facebook’s global head of security, Antigone Davis, to end the “finstas”.
C-SPAN

“Well, ‘finsta’ is one of your products or services,” said Blumenthal. “We’re not talking about Google or Apple, it’s Facebook, is it? “

“’Finsta’ is slang for an account guy,” Davis replied.

“OK, are you going to terminate this type of account?” Blumenthal asked again.

After a pause, Davis admitted, “I’m not sure I understand exactly what you are asking. What I can say is that from what we’ve seen with regards to teens using these kinds of accounts, we’ve actually given them some additional privacy options to resolve these kinds of issues, where they want more privacy so they can have more privacy. “

Facebook's global head of security, Antigone Davis, had to clarify that
Facebook’s global head of security Antigone Davis had to clarify that “finsta” was a slang term for a user’s more exclusive account.
C-SPAN

“Well, I don’t think that’s an answer to my question,” Blumenthal said after a few seconds of silence before concluding the hearing.

Congressional hearings involving tech companies have sometimes seen middle-aged and older lawmakers struggling to keep up with the topic. One of those moments happened in 2018, when Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) asked Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg, “How do you maintain a business model where users don’t pay for your service? “

“Senator,” Zuckerberg replied. “We run advertisements. “

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