Instagram will start asking some US users for their race and ethnicity to better understand how people from different communities are impacted by the app, the company said Thursday. Instagram head Adam Mosseri said all responses will be encrypted and can’t be connected a person’s account.
“It’s in our interest to make sure Instagram is as great an experience as it can be for all communities,” Mosseri said in a video posted on Twitter. “If we’re going to make sure that Instagram is fair and equitable as an experience, we need to understand how it is working for different communities.”
A random group of US users will be asked to participate in the survey. A prompt near the top of your feed will take you to a YouGov survey. Instagram said participation in the survey is optional, and your responses won’t limit your experience in the app.
Once the surveys are complete, they will be sent to Instagram’s research partners Texas Southern University, University of Central Florida, Northeastern University and Oasis Labs. These partners will then share an aggregated analysis of the data with Instagram.
“User responses are encrypted and split apart, with distributed algorithmic computations and data storages at different institutions, so no one can link survey responses to Instagram accounts,” Dr. Zhishan Guo, assistant professor in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at UCF, said.
Instagram said these responses won’t be used in its ad systems. Response will be deleted by YouGov after 30 days, but you must request this information to be deleted from the partner institutes.
Facebook announced in 2020 that the platform and Instagram would be stepping up efforts to address challenges minorities face on the platforms. The companies also said they would examine potential racial bias in its algorithm and products. This came after Facebook was pressured to combat hateful content on its site after the police killing of George Floyd, a 46-year-old Black man in Minneapolis.
Instagram created the Equity team which was focused on “ensuring fairness and equitable product development.”
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