DoubleVerify said it will be expanding its brand safety and suitability measurement to Meta’s Facebook and Instagram Feeds and Reels, enabling advertisers to independently authenticate campaign quality and product their brands in user-generated media environments.

The new capabilities take advantage of proprietary technology from DV that includes artificial intelligence that is able to classify at scale the content above and below ads.

DV is able to measure the quality of in-stream video on Instagram and Facebooks, as well as Meta’s Audience Network.

"The expansion of DV’s industry-leading, AI-powered classification technology to Facebook and Instagram Feeds and Reels underscores our commitment to helping brands ensure safe and suitable ad environments across all channels,” said Mark Zagorski, CEO, DoubleVerify. “The protection of brand reputation online is an important factor in maximizing campaign performance for the global brands we serve.”

Also Read: DoubleVerify Working With Google To Measure YouTube Shorts

DoubleVerify has worked with Meta since 2017, providing fraud and viewability data on Facebook and Instagram. It has been expanding its capabilities to include some brand safety and suitability features for Facebook and media quality authentication for Facebook and Instagram Reels.

"DoubleVerify's expansion of brand safety and suitability solutions across Facebook and Instagram is an important step forward in our ongoing efforts to foster digital transparency and trust within our advertising environments,” said Samantha Stetson, VP of Client Council and Industry Trades at Meta. “Responsible marketing is a key priority at Meta – and we are delighted to expand our partnerships with this important solution."

Congress has new ammunition against Big Tech, and the bipartisan sponsors of legislation to crack down on or break up Meta are using it to push passage of their Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA).

In a statement early Friday (November 3), Sens. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) and Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.), lead sponsors of KOSA, cited allegations from whistleblower Arturo Bejar, former director of engineering at Facebook (now Meta), the owner of Instagram, which came in a story in The Wall Street Journal. The senators said the allegations were backed with “irrefutable evidence” that top Meta executives, including executive chairman and CEO Mark Zuckerberg, “were personally warned that millions of teens face bullying, eating disorder material, illicit drugs and sexual exploitation, often within minutes of opening the [Instagram] app,” but instead of addressing those “deadly” harms, they “hid that information from the public and congressional oversight, ignored recommendations to protect teens, rolled back safety tools, and dismantled teams responsible for kids’ safety.”

Bejar's allegations came in a Journal story about the Instagram safety executive, who said his warnings that the short-form video site’s approach to protecting teens wasn't working fell on deaf ears.

Blumenthal and Blackburn are the chair and ranking member, respectively, of the Senate Consumer Protection, Product Safety and Data Security Subcommittee.

Also Read: Blumenthal Says Facebook Weaponizes Childhood Suffering

Bejar's allegations come on top of those of Facebook whistleblower Frances Haugen.

When Haugen testified to Congress a year ago, Blumenthal called it Facebook's "Big Tobacco" moment.

A former Facebook product manager and data scientist, Haugen took documents when she left the company that she said show its algorithms “amplify polarizing and hateful content” for the sake of profit — a motive partly responsible for “tearing societies apart” — and said the company had research showing that but obscured the fact that it is harmful.

Of Bejar’s latest revelations, Blumenthal and Blackburn said in a joint statement: “Facebook along with other tech giants have been fighting our legislation with armies of lobbyists, lawyers, and opposition campaigns, but the broad coalition of young people, parents and experts will win. It is time to say ‘enough is enough’ to Big Tech and pass the Kids Online Safety Act.”

Meta had not responded to a request for comment early Friday.

Attorneys general in 30-plus states have filed lawsuits against Facebook parent Meta, alleging the company's business model is based on keeping young users on the platform and glued to its streaming video content, a platform that harms young people's mental health.

The suit alleges that Meta's assertions that its features are not manipulative and its platform is safe are bogus, and so represent illegal false and deceptive practices.

It also says Meta has violated the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) by collecting personal data on young users without their parents' consent.

The suit says that one way Meta tried to capture young users was to host various child-targeted video content providers on Instagram, including Disney Junior, PBS Kids and Nickelodeon.

It also cited video streaming features including Facebook Live, IGTV (which was dropped from the platform in 2022), Instagram Video and Reels (which merged into Instagram Video).

Aiding the AGs in their suit was information supplied to Congress and others by a whistleblower who provided documents that the AGs say clearly show Meta knew its platform harmed kids.

The AGs have asked the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California to force Meta to stop the practices cited, pay fines likely in the hundreds of millions or even billions of dollars, disgorge ill-gotten gains and much more.“Kids and teenagers are suffering from record levels of poor mental health and social media companies like Meta are to blame,” New York Attorney General Letitia James said. 

“Meta has profited from children’s pain by intentionally designing its platforms with manipulative features that make children addicted to their platforms while lowering their self-esteem. Social media companies, including Meta, have contributed to a national youth mental health crisis and they must be held accountable. I am proud to join my fellow attorneys general to stop Meta’s harmful tactics and keep children safe online.”

In addition to New York, states that signed onto the suit, according to James, were Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Georgia, Hawaii, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, New Jersey, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, South Dakota, Virginia, Washington, West Virginia and Wisconsin.

Free Press, Common Cause and a bunch of other progressive groups and civil rights advocates have called on the biggest social media companies to combat disinformation in the run-up to the midterm elections, the first national election since the January 6 Capitol insurrection, saying if they don't, they are "the dominant threat" to the democratic process.

That came in the form of letters to the CEOs of Meta, Twitter, YouTube, Snapchat, Instagram, TikTok, and Alphabet from over 100 groups.

Also: House Dems Grill Facebook, Google, Twitter

They pointed to disinformation hangover from the 2016 presidential election, like the stat that a recent poll found that over 40% of Americans said they didn't believe President Biden was the legitimate winner of the election, or what has become known as "the Big Lie."

Among the steps they want Big Tech to take are preventing disinformation targeting non-English-speaking communities, consistently apply "civic integrity" policies to all their live content, prioritize fact checking, including of political ads and posts from public officials, and provide watchdogs and outside researchers real time access to data.

Also: Big Tech Defends Twitter Trump Ban

"Election disinformation targets voters year-round," said Nora Benavidez, Free Press senior counsel and director of digital justice and civil rights, in a statement. "This is a systemic effort to discredit and disenfranchise certain voters—and especially those in communities of color—that has been made worse by platforms and their inability to protect their users from bad actors. These social media companies must do better in the run-up to November's midterms, starting with fixing their algorithms, protecting people equally, and increasing their transparency."

The groups concede that social media can be an important tool in promoting democracy, but only when there is responsible oversight and protections. Without those, they warn, their platforms will "become known as the dominant threat to a thriving democratic process." ■

Congress continued its bipartisan beatdown of Big Tech Wednesday in a Senate Consumer Protection Subcommittee hearing featuring Instagram CEO Adam Mosseri, with more hammering of the industry expected the following day in a House Consumer Protection Subcommittee hearing titled "Holding Big Tech Accountable: Legislation to Build a Safer Internet" and a Senate Communications Subcommittee hearing the same day, “Disrupting Dangerous Algorithms: Addressing the Harms of Persuasive Technology.”

At Wednesday's hearing, co-chaired by Committee Chairman Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) and Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.), Mosseri repeatedly took flak from both sides of the aisle. The hearing was prompted by Facebook whistleblower revelations about internal research showing some negative impact of Instagram on young people, though the company has countered that that research showed more people said it was a positive influence.

For his part, Mosseri said: "I’m proud of our work to help keep young people safe, to support young people who are struggling, and to empower parents with tools to help their teenagers develop healthy and safe online habits." Mosseri, on the eve of the hearing, announced several changes he said would make the platform even safer.

But he also suggested that the issue was bigger than his company, arguing that "more U.S. teens are using TikTok and YouTube than Instagram."

That has hardly assuaged those legislators, who argue Instagram parent Meta (formerly Facebook), is emblematic of the dominant Big Tech players that have grown without sufficient oversight of how they got that way and what they can, and have, done with their massive power. In response, Facebook has taken out an ad campaign essentially calling for tailored regulation of itself and others, though not the elimination of their Sec. 230 immunity from civil liability over third party content, something legislators have kept on the table.

Blumenthal raked Instagram over the coals in his opening, saying social media fanned the flames of a mental health crisis. He said proposals of self-regulation depended on trust and Instagram and other social media giants had squandered that trust. He said he was stunned by the lack of action by Meta after he told the company of the subcommitee's test using a made-up teen account that found it flooded with dangerous pro-anorexia and eating disorder info. He said a similar test this week yielded the same results.

Also: House Dems Say Big Tech Is Dangerous to Democracy

Blumenthal said the time for self-regulatory bodies, as Mosseri and Instagram proposed, was over and that legislation and regulation were coming. Sen. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) agreed that a self-regulatory body would not fill the bill given revelations about the company.

Sen. Blackburn echoed Blumenthal, saying that she was frustrated that Meta had not taken action, but simply continued to say that its platform needed improvement, or more tools in the toolkit, or that data would secure, then offered half-measures that didn't cut it. She said those measures were too little too late, and put some flesh on the bones of coming regulation, saying legislators were working on children's privacy, online privacy, data security, and Sec. 230 reforms.

“We should no longer permit Instagram to manipulate and harm the nation’s youth," said Jeff Chester, executive director of the Center for Digital Democracy of Mosseri's testimony. "This company has demonstrated time and again it cannot be trusted to place the interests of children ahead of its quest to reap tremendous revenues,” said Jeff Chester, executive director, Center for Digital Democracy, Washington, D.C. “Only Congress can protect children and teens online by passing a comprehensive law which ensures platforms such as Instagram operate responsibly.” 

Other takeaways from the hearing:

Mosseri bristled at the suggestion by Blumenthal that its content was addictive, saying that was not the case.

Blumenthal asked if Mosseri would commit to stop developing Instagram Kids for children under 13, a project it paused after Hill pushback. Mosseri would not, saying the idea for an Instagram for 10-12-year-olds was meant to solve a problem, which is kids wanting to access the older version.

Blumenthal cited a just-released Surgeon General's report that he said provided evidence of the negative impact of social media (and video games) on mental health. The report concluded that Big Tech "must step up and take responsibility for creating a safe digital environment for children and youth."

An emotional Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) said Instagram was using kids as cash cows and that its interests and those of parents and children were diametrically opposed.

In response to probing from Klobuchar, Mosseri conceded that he assumed it was accurate that a company executive said losing teen users would be an existential threat.

Blumenthal said Mosseri's suggestion that companies should have to earn Sec. 230 protection has some appeal to him, but it was not government regulation. He asked if Mosseri would support applying the UK's Children's Code to  the U.S. Mosseri said he would and that enforcement should be at the federal level. Mosseri did not say he would explicitly support giving users a private right of action.

Mosseri denied that the company's marketing budget went from $67 million to $390 million with the majority going to teens. Klobuchar pointed out that the New York Times story that reported that budget increase said "much" not "majority" went to woo teens and asked if he denied that. He said he did not know how much of the budget it was but would get back to her.

Mosseri would not agree to support legislation by Sen. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) banning ads targeted to kids, saying that some such ads can be helpful and that its approach is to prevent some types of targeted ads to teens, weight-loss ads for example.

Asked if he would hire more human reviewers-- a suggestion from whistleblower Farnces Haugen--Mosseri nuanced his answer, saying people are better at nuance, while technology is better at scale.

"Today's hearing with Adam Mosseri was just more of the same from Meta: evasions, empty promises, and half-baked safety measures on Instagram that should've been in place all along," said Josh Golin. executive director of Fairplay. "The bottom line is this: Instagram's advertising business is harming children, and nothing meaningful has been done to change that.  It is shocking that even disturbing practices exposed by the Senators at the Antigone Davis hearing—that new accounts were fed content promoting eating disorders—still exist two months later. It's clear that self-regulation will not work. Congress must act now and regulate Big Tech to protect children." ■

Suggesting the changes were to improve a platform that already works hard to protect young people, Instagram CEO Adam Mosseri on Tuesday blogged the news of some “new tools and features” to make young people “even safer” on the social media site.

The blog post gave Mosseri something to defend himself with when he faces a congressional gauntlet Wednesday (Dec. 8) during a hearing in the Senate Consumer Protection Subcommittee. The session was called by Democrats who are none too happy with Instagram or parent company Meta (formerly Facebook) over in-house research suggesting the company knows its platform can be harmful to young people.

Mosseri said Instagram will take a “stricter approach” to what it recommends to teens, and will prevent people from tagging or mentioning teens that are not among their followers.

One knock on Instagram is that its recommendations reinforce issues like eating disorders through its recommendations. Mosseri said Instagram will be “nudging” teens toward other topics if they are dwelling on a topic for “a long time,” though it does not say how long.

He said Instagram early next year will also be launching its first tools to help parents “get more involved” in their teens’ Instagram “experiences.” That will include allowing them to see how much time their kids spend on the site and set time limits.

But Mosseri accentuated the positive even as he was talking about eliminating the negative, using language like “continuing” and “keeping,” which signals the company is not ceding its critics any ground.

“Every day I see the positive impact that Instagram has for young people everywhere,” he wrote. “I’m proud that our platform is a place where teens can spend time with the people they care about, explore their interests and explore who they are. I want to make sure that it stays that way, which means above all keeping them safe on Instagram.”

Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.), who is co-chairing the Instagram hearing, told CBS News Tuesday she thought Instagram was taking "half measures," and only because "they know regulation is coming." ■ 

Instagram CEO Adam Mosseri has agreed to testify at a Dec. 8 hearing in the Senate Consumer Protection Subcommittee. He should come prepared with some answers, or a flak jacket, given the committee chair's framing of the hearing.

“After bombshell reports about Instagram’s toxic impacts, we want to hear straight from the company’s leadership why it uses powerful algorithms that push poisonous content to children driving them down rabbit holes to dark places, and what it will do to make its platform safer,” said Committee Chairman Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), who announced the bipartisan hearing along with ranking member Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.).

Blumenthal has been a central player in Congress' beat down of Big Tech, particularly Instagram parent Meta (formerly Facebook), and the revelation of internal research on the impact of Instagram on youth.

Blumenthal said he appreciated Mosseri's agreement to testify voluntarily but suggested he would appreciate it even more if Mosseri came armed with "reforms and solutions."

Blackburn said it was time for action given that "Instagram’s repeated failures to protect children’s privacy have already been exposed before the U.S. Senate."

The Dec. 8 hearing will be the fifth Blumenthal/Blackburn co-production looking at social media's impact on children and young people. ■

Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), chairman of the Senate Consumer Protection, Product Safety, and Data Security Subcommittee, is trying to pressure Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg to testify on Instagram's impact on youth before his panel, saying to date the executive has been evasive and his company dismissive of evidence it puts profits before the health of teen users.

Also Read: At Haugen Hearing, Blumenthal Calls It Big Tech's Big Tobacco Moment

That pressure has been growing in the wake of Facebook whistleblower Frances Haugen’s testimony to Congress. Haugen, armed with internal research, told the Senate that the company prioritizes profit over the mental health of its users and knows it is doing so. Facebook says the research shows the company’s Instagram social-media platform is helpful, not harmful, to most teens, and that it used the research to help the minority who said Instagram reinforced their negative body images.

Haugen told Blumenthal and the subcommittee that Facebook was buying its profits with consumer safety and that it intentionally hides documents and repeatedly misleads the public. Until incentives change, she argued, the company won't.

Blumenthal wrote that “as recently as this weekend,” the company was continuing to downplay the reporting about the impact of the research as an “orchestrated ‘gotcha’ campaign.”

The senator said Zuckerberg needed to clear up some inconsistencies between Haugen's testimony and that of Antigone Davis, global head of safety for Facebook, in a separate hearing. There have been multiple hearings on Big Tech's impact on little users.

Blumenthal, in a letter to the CEO dated Wednesday, said Zuckerberg has “doubled down on evasive answers” and “kept hidden” reports on the health of its teenage users, only providing vague plans for action sometime in the future. "Rather than casting baseless aspirations on whistleblowers and journalists, Facebook should be vigorously acting to provide parents with firm commitments for dramatic reforms and direct answers. Sadly, it is not," he says.

Blumenthal wrote that it was “urgent and necessary” for Zuckerberg or Adam Mosseri, who heads up Instagram for Facebook, to testify.

While Facebook has been pushing back on characterizations related to its internal research, it has at the same time blanketed D.C. with ads talking about how it wanted the government to step in and set rules of the road for content moderation.

That effort is in part to head off tough legislation that could break up Big Tech companies or curtail or eliminate their immunity under Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act from civil liability for most third-party content.

Representatives from Snapchat, TikTok and YouTube have agreed to testify at an Oct. 26 Senate hearing, and they should probably come in flak jackets.

The hearing is the bipartisan handiwork of Senate Subcommittee on Consumer Protection, Product Safety and Data Security chairman Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) and ranking member Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.), both of whom have been highly critical of edge provider practices.

Also Read: Big Tech-Targeted Senate Bill Introduced

“The bombshell reports about Facebook and Instagram — their toxic impacts on young users and lack of truth or transparency — raise serious concerns about Big Tech’s approach toward kids across the board,” said Blumenthal, who has been saying for a while that he wanted to get representatives from other platforms to testify before the committee.

The Oct. 26 hearing is the fourth in a series on the impact of the edge on children and young people.

“Big tech companies continue to prioritize profit over safety and, in doing so, are harming children online,” Blackburn said, going further than Blumenthal in hammering the upcoming witnesses by name. “TikTok, Snapchat and YouTube all play a leading role in exposing children to harmful content.”

Blumenthal has said he believes Big Tech is having a Big Tobacco moment, an observation that came following the revelations about Facebook's internal research findings that some young people found Instagram contributed to their depression and negative body image.

Also Read: ‘How to Stop Facebook’ Campaign Launched

Facebook, Instagram’s owner, has bought a lot of airtime in Washington for ads arguing for regulations on its content moderation, likely because it sees Washington is serious about regulating the platform. The social-media giant wants to head off the potential elimination of its immunity from civil liability for most third-party content on its sites under Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act.

Reps. Debbie Dingell (D-Mich.) and Mike Johnson (R-La.) have teamed up to call on Big Tech to create a rating board for apps and adopt ratings comparable to those for video games, movies and music.

While there have been ratings boards for movies, music and video games for a couple of decades, the relatively newer world of apps has no such body, with ratings often provided by the app creator.

That congressional call for action comes in a just-introduced “Fix Apps Ratings” House resolution. Such resolutions don't have the force of law, but signal the sense of Congress on an issue  — and the implied threat that if action doesn't happen voluntarily, some of those House members might legislate to make it so.

The idea of the industry-run ratings board is to streamline age-appropriate ratings, as well as parental controls that are easy to use, “digital wellness features” and other tools to help kids online.

The resolution comes in the wake of a Facebook whistleblower’s revelations about internal company research finding that some teen Instagram users said using the app made them feel worse about themselves and even prompted thoughts of suicide, though Facebook counters that the majority of teens polled found instagram was helpful, not harmful.

“For too long, apps have been allowed to serve as hubs for bullying, sexually explicit material and other forms of content that jeopardize children’s safety, self-image and overall well-being,” Johnson said.

Both legislators argue that app ratings are often inaccurate, inconsistent, or not specific enough,  while parental controls are too complex or depend on ratings “self assigned” by app developers.

The National Center on Sexual Exploitation (NCOSE) gave the effort a big thumbs up.

“The technology industry must take responsibility for ensuring apps are rated accurately,” center CEO Dawn Hawkins said. “Parents are left in the dark about the kind of content their children are accessing because app ratings are misleading or inaccurate. … For instance, Instagram, Snapchat and TikTok are rated 12-plus, but these social media platforms and others have left children vulnerable to potential predators and harmful content. Tech platforms should focus on defaulting to safety, thereby putting the health and wellbeing of children above profit.”

As part of the "social media as piñata" Big Tech bashing this week, which included Hill hearings on online privacy and Instagram's impact on children, Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) has introduced a bill that would make social media companies liable "for bodily or mental harm their products cause to children."

The bill would remove websites' Sec. 230 immunity from civil liability, allowing parents to sue for damages from social media companies for "bodily injury or harm to mental health that is attributable, in whole or in part, to the individual’s use of a covered interactive computer service provided by the social media company."

That comes as Facebook was raked over the proverbial coals in a Senate Consumer Protection Subcommittee hearing Thursday (Sept. 30) over internal documents that suggest it knew Instagram was harmful to young people, including to their mental health and wellbeing.

Hawley referenced the company in announcing his bill.

“Facebook has long had evidence of the harmful effects their products have on children but covered it up because it would hurt their profits," he said. "These Big Tech monopolies know exactly how addictive and manipulative their products are but they’re content to rake in billions by exploiting children. Parents need to be given the tools to take back control.”

The Hawley bill and the Hill hearing--at which both Democrats and Republicans read a company representative the riot act--were both prompted in part by reports from the Wall Street Journal on internal Facebook research. Those documents were separately supplied to the subcommittee by a whistleblower who has agreed to testify at an Oct. 5 hearing in the same subcommittee, and to talk about the documents on 60 Minutes this Sunday (Oct. 3), according to the network.

Hawley also confronted a Facebook VP about the documents in a Senate Judiciary hearing last week.

Some powerful lawmakers are telling Facebook it should pull the plug on plans for a kids‘ version of Instagram, not simply suspend them, and have signaled that Congress is stepping in regardless.

Facebook announced the pause on Monday (Sept. 27), but said it still thought a kid-targeted version of Instagram was a way to help prevent children under 13 from trying to access inappropriate apps.

The opposing view from lawmakers came in a joint statement from, among others, the lead senator for a hearing this week on the adverse impact of the adult/teen version of Instagram on young people, Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.).

Joining Blumenthal were Sen. Ed Markey (D-Mass.), one of the leading voices for kids’ online privacy, as well as Reps. Kathy Castor (D-Fla.) and Lori Trahan (D-Mass.).

The legislators said that though they were glad Facebook had heeded their call to back off the kids’ version, a pause was not enough.

“Facebook has completely forfeited the benefit of the doubt when it comes to protecting young people online and it must completely abandon this project,” they said in a joint statement. “Time and time again, Facebook has demonstrated the failures of self-regulation, and we know that Congress must step in.”

In this case, that step is the Kids Internet Design and Safety (KIDS) Act, which the lawmakers said they plan to introduce. The bill would give young internet users “the protections they need to navigate today’s online ecosystem without sacrificing their well-being.” 

They said it is critical legislation and called upon their colleagues to support it.

In advance of a high-profile Capitol Hill hearing on “Facebook and the Impact of Instagram on Youth,” Facebook said Monday it is “pausing” its plans to create a kid-targeted version of the popular Instagram photo-sharing app.

“While we stand by the need to develop this [Instagram Kids] experience, we’ve decided to pause this project,” said Instagram head Adam Mosseri. “This will give us time to work with parents, experts, policymakers and regulators, to listen to their concerns, and to demonstrate the value and importance of this project for younger teens online today.”

Also Read: Facebook Agrees to Participate in Instagram Hearing

Facebook has argued that creating the kid-friendly platform is a way to address the problem of kids under 13 misrepresenting their age online to access the adult/teen version.

”We firmly believe that it’s better for parents to have the option to give their children access to a version of Instagram that is designed for them — where parents can supervise and control their experience,“ Mosseri said.

The policymakers preparing to grill Facebook this week will certainly share their concerns with the company, and if recent hearings and statements related to the company are any indication, they will do so vigorously.

Also Read: Senator Says TikTok Needs Hill Grilling

Facebook last week agreed to send a witness to Washington for a Sept. 30 hearing this week in the Senate Consumer Protection Subcommittee entitled “Protecting Kids Online: Facebook, Instagram, & Mental Health Harms.”

Sens. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) and Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.), chair and ranking member, respectively, of the subcommittee are both unhappy with a Wall Street Journal report that Facebook had data showing Instagram could be harmful to young people, but downplayed it.

Facebook has agreed to send a witness to Washington for a hearing next week in the Senate Consumer Protection Subcommittee.

Sens. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) and Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.), chair and ranking member, respectively, of the subcommittee are both unhappy with a Wall Street Journal report that Facebook had data showing Instagram could be harmful to young people, but downplayed it.

Also Read: Senator Says TikTok Needs Hill Grilling

The title of the Sept. 30 hearing advertises that bipartisan concern: “Protecting Kids Online: Facebook, Instagram, & Mental Health Harms.” 

And if that were not sufficient tip-off, Blumenthal made it clear: “This hearing will examine the toxic effects of Facebook and Instagram on young people and others.“ 

“[Founder and CEO] Mark Zuckerberg’s guiding principle for Facebook is profit,” added Blackburn.

Blumenthal’s office said that Facebook has agreed to send global head of safety Antigone Davis to the hearing. It also signaled there will be more hearings where this came from, with other social media companies having agreed to appear at future hearings “looking at whether Big Tech is knowingly harming people.”

If past is prologue, Davis can expect to get a grilling next week.

Earlier this month, Blumenthal and Blackburn launched a probe of Facebook's alleged "coverup" of the impact of its platforms on teens and children, tapping a Facebook whistleblower in that effort.

Blumenthal is also calling on TikTok to explain how it is combating the Devious Licks issue and also plans to hold a hearing on that platform on kids and teens.

A pair of powerful senators have launched a bipartisan congressional investigation into Facebook's alleged "coverup" of the impact of its platforms on teens and children tapping a Facebook whistleblower in that effort.

Sens. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) and Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.), chair and ranking member, respectively, of the Senate Commerce Consumer Protection Subcommittee, said they were launching that probe.

Last month, both the legislators asked Facebook for internal research on the impact of their platforms, including Instagram Kids--on young people's mental health.

That probe comes amid pushback on Facebook's plans for Instagram Kids and in direct response to a story in the Wall Street Journal that got widespread coverage.

Also Read: FTC Accuses Facebook of Surveillance-Based Ads

Under the headline and leadline "Facebook Knows Instagram Is Toxic for Teen Girls, Company Documents Show, Its own in-depth research shows a significant teen mental-health issue that Facebook plays down in public," the Journal reported Tuesday that, based on internal memos, Facebook had research showing that Instagram had an adverse impact on a number of teens, particularly teen girls, almost a third of whom polled said Instagram made them feel worse about their bodies.

Facebook emphasized that a large percentage of teens were not adversely affected.

Also Read: Groups Tell Facebook To Abandon Instagram Jr. Plans

“It is clear that Facebook is incapable of holding itself accountable," said Blumenthal and Blackburn in a joint statement. "The Wall Street Journal’s reporting reveals Facebook’s leadership to be focused on a growth-at-all-costs mindset that valued profits over the health and lives of children and teens. When given the opportunity to come clean to us about their knowledge of Instagram’s impact on young users, Facebook provided evasive answers that were misleading and covered up clear evidence of significant harm. We are in touch with a Facebook whistleblower and will use every resource at our disposal to investigate what Facebook knew and when they knew it – including seeking further documents and pursuing witness testimony. The Wall Street Journal’s blockbuster reporting may only be the tip of the iceberg.”

"While the story focuses on a limited set of findings and casts them in a negative light, we stand by this research," said Facebook in a blog post Tuesday. "It demonstrates our commitment to understanding complex and difficult issues young people may struggle with, and informs all the work we do to help those experiencing these issues."

Facebook had no comment beyond the blog.

The majority of state attorneys general have called on Facebook to abandon plans to create a children's (under 13) version of Instagram.

That came in a letter to Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg from a coalition of 44 state AGs.

Also Read: Hill Dems: Instagram for Kids May do More Harm Than Good

They argue that social media in general can be detrimental to children for a number of reasons and that Facebook in particular has a history of failing to protect kids on its platforms.

“Without a doubt, this is a dangerous idea that risks the safety of our children and puts them directly in harm’s way,” said New York AG Letitia James. 

There was an implied threat in the AG move. "There are too many concerns to let Facebook move forward with this ill-conceived idea," said James.

Among the issues the letter addresses are 1) research on the harms of social media to children's physical, emotional and mental health; 2) an increase in cyberbullying on Instagram; the use of Instagram by child predators; 3) and children's inability to navigate complex online encounters.

They pointed out that at a Hill hearing, Zuckerberg "dismissed" the idea social media was harmful to kids.

They argue that Facebook has failed in multiple ways to protect kids and as a reault has "cast doubt on Facebook’s ability to protect children on their proposed Instagram platform and comply with relevant privacy laws such as the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act."

Also Read: Sens. Cassidy, Markey Introduce Update to Online Child Protection Law

AGs signing on to the letter were from Alaska, California, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Idaho, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Rhode Island, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, Wisconsin, Wyoming, the District of Columbia, and the territories of Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands, and Puerto Rico.

A coalition of dozens of groups and academics from around the world are calling on Facebook to scrap plans to launch a version of Instagram for children. Facebook is countering that it continues to explore the option, which it said will be age appropriate and managed by parents. 

The coalition signaled that stance in a letter to Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg.

The groups, led by the Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood, cited a BuzzFeed report that Facebook plans to build a version of the social media site that "allows people under the age of 13 to safely use Instagram for the first time.”

Also Read: Hill Dems Says Instagram for Kids May Do More Harm Than Good

While they said they agree the current version of the site is not safe for the millions of kids who have lied about their age to create accounts, they argued launching a version for kids is not the right remedy, and would instead put users at "great risk" by "exploiting their fears of missing ou[t] or the desire for peer approval," leading them to constantly check their devices and share photos. "A growing body of research demonstrates that excessive use of digital devices and social media is harmful to adolescents," they write, including contributing to obesity, lower psychological wellbeing, decreased happiness, and decreased quality of sleep. "Instagram’s focus on photo sharing and appearance makes the platform particularly unsuitable for children who are in the midst of crucial stages of developing their sense of self," they said.

Also Read: Hill Continues Big Tech CEO Punishment

Besides, they argued, creating a new site for kids does not eliminate the problem of underagers on the current site. For example, they argued, "children between the ages of 10 and 12 who have existing Instagram accounts are unlikely to migrate to a “babyish” version of the platform after they have experienced the real thing."

Finally, they argued that Facebook has a track record of exploiting young people that makes it particularly unsuitable to be "the custodian of a photo sharing and social messaging site for children."

Among the other groups signing on to the letter are the Center for Digital Democracy, the Consumer Federation of America, the Parents Television and Media Center, Child Online Africa, and Global Action Plan UK.

"We’ve just started exploring a version of Instagram for younger teens," said a Facebook spokesperson. "We agree that any experience we develop must prioritize their safety and privacy, and we will consult with experts in child development, child safety and mental health, and privacy advocates to inform it. In addition, we will not show ads in any Instagram experience we develop for people under the age of 13.”

They also pointed out that "the reality is that kids are online. They want to connect with their family and friends, have fun, and learn, and we want to help them do that in a way that is safe and age-appropriate. We also want to find practical solutions to the ongoing industry problem of kids lying about their age to access apps."

Facebook is working on new age verification methods to get the under-13s off the site while "exploring an Instagram experience for kids that is age-appropriate and managed by parents."

Some Hill Dems led by Sen. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) are pressing Facebook on more info in its exploration of a version of Instagram for children and warning if they don't like the answers they get, the company should stop exploring. 

In a letter to Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, they "demanded" some commitments, or know the reason why, and expressed their concerns about Facebook's past failure to protect kids on their Messenger Kids ap. "[R]esearch shows that apps such as Instagram may be detrimental to young people’s wellbeing and mental health," they wrote. "If Facebook’s objective is to decrease the number of users under the age of 13 on its current Instagram platform, it should invest in efforts to do that directly. The alternative approach that Facebook appears poised to take—specifically, pushing kids to sign up for a new platform that may itself pose threats to young users’ privacy and wellbeing—involves serious challenges and may do more harm than good." 

In 2019, Markey, joined by Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) hammered the company over its apparent failure to child-proof that app. Blumenthal is on the current letter as well, which is dated April 5.

At that time, a Facebook source speaking on background said it was a technical error affecting group chats, rather than a design flaw in the app itself, and that it had been detected and resolved.

Markey and Blumenthal, joined by Reps. Lori Trahan (Mass.) and Kathy Castor (Fla.), wanted answers to the following by April 26: 

1. "Will you commit that any platforms that Facebook launches for children, including a version of Instagram that is marketed for children, will never sell or share any user data with third parties for commercial purposes? If not, why not?

2. "Will you commit that any platforms that Facebook launches for children, including a version of Instagram that is marketed for children, will always be completely free of targeted advertising? If not, why" not?

3. Will you commit that any platforms that Facebook launches for children, including a version of Instagram that is marketed for children, will always be completely free of “influencer marketing” and other forms of commercial content that children may be incapable of identifying as advertisements? If not, why not?

4. "Will you commit that any platforms that Facebook launches for children, including a version of Instagram that is marketed for children, will not employ “push alert” techniques or similar design features that encourage users to spend time on the app? If not, why not?

5. "Will you commit that any platforms that Facebook launches for children, including a version of Instagram that is marketed for children, will not employ features such as “like” buttons, follower counts, or other tools that allow children to quantify popularity? If not, why not?

6. "Will you commit that any platforms that Facebook launches for children, including a version of Instagram that is marketed for children, will not include beauty filters or similar design features that can lead to an unhealthy body image? 

7. "Will you commit that any platform that Facebook launches for children, including a version of Instagram that is marketed for children, will not include ephemeral features such as stories and “vanish mode” which are difficult to monitor for bullying or child exploitation?"

“Should Facebook fail to provide adequate responses to the questions above or otherwise fail to demonstrate that a future version of Instagram for children would meet the highest standards of user protection," they warned in closing, "we would advise you to abandon your plans to launch this new platform.”  

Comcast’s NBCUniversal’s One21 “developers” meeting for advertisers and ad buyers will feature speakers from Twitter, Visa, The Trade Desk, Instagram and LA2028.

NBC said the meeting will focus on consumers, content and connection.

“Comcast NBCUniversal Sky is building a brighter, smarter future and we're not doing it alone," said Linda Yaccarino, chairman, global advertising and partnerships, NBCUniversal. “People are living their lives at the intersection of media and technology—and One21 perfectly reflects that reality. This global event invites in all kinds of developers — from storytellers to software engineers, small businesses to global brands. By bringing this massive community together we’re giving our partners a window into the future —and we're hoping to spark an extraordinary new era of collaboration.”

Some of the Comcast speakers will include NBCU CEO Jeff Shell; Matt Strauss who heads direct-to-consumer and Peacock; Charlie Herrin, chief product officer at Comcast Cable; Susan Rovner chairman of entertainment content at NBCUniversal Television and Streaming, and Rashida Jones, president of MSNBC.

Disney Ad Sales has a presentation emphasizing its technology capabilities last month

NBCUniversal is expected to have an upfront highlighting its upcoming programming May.

African-American consumers continue to lead the consumption of content across multiple platforms, according to a recent Nielsen 2019 Diverse Intelligence Series (DIS) report on African Americans.

Nielsen’s It’s In The Bag: Black Consumers’ Path to Purchase report states that African-Americans continue to be voracious consumers of television content, spending more than 50 hours watching live and time-shifted television a week in first quarter 2019, over 10 hours more than the total population, according to the research company.

“It doesn’t matter how many other streaming services we have access to, traditional television viewing is still number one with the African-American population,” said Cheryl Grace, senior vice president of U.S. strategic community alliances and consumer engagement for Nielsen. “What that looks like is 91% of every African-American can be reached weekly via television primarily through what we’re watching in real time and what we save on our recording devices.”

The tv shows African-Americans are watching don't always match that of the general population as black viewers gravitate more towards content that reflect their images and storylines -- particularly among younger viewers. Among adults 18-34, only Fox’s 911 and Empire show up among the top 20 most watched shows for both the African-Americans and the total population. VH1’s Love & Hip Hop franchise, Black Inc. Crew and Fox’s  cancelled Star are among the top 10 most-watched shows in young, African-American households that are not ranked on the top 20 most-watched TV show list for the total population.

Despite  heavy usage of traditional media, African-American consumers are on the cutting edge of new content distribution platforms and devices. Overall, 61% of African Americans are fascinated by new technology and 37% are more likely than the total population to be the first among their peers to try new technology products, according to Nielsen.

That includes a whopping 96% of all African-American adults having and using a smartphone, compared to 95% of the total population, according to Nielsen. Further, African-Americans 35 and older surpass all consumers in their age group by 2% for smartphone ownership.

Not surprisingly, African-Americans spend more time consuming video on their android phones and iPhones compared to the total population. Nielsen reports that Blacks spend nearly 30 hours a week on websites and apps on their smartphones, more than three hours more than the all consumers as a whole.

Youtube is the most consumed entertainment app for African-Americans at 79%, while Netflix has the highest market share among subscription video on demand apps with 39%, according to Nielsen. Hulu is second with 15%, followed closely by Amazon Prime Video at 14%.

On the social media front, Facebook is the top choice for African-American adults, with more than 65% of black adults using the service, according to Nielsen. Grace added that African-Americans overindex in the use of other social media services such as Instagram, SnapChat, Pinetrest and Twitter compared to the total population.

Yet despite African American consumers’ high consumption of traditional and new media -- as well as an estimated annual buying power of $1.3 trillion dollars -- Grace said companies are not increasing ad dollars targeting black consumers. She added that about $18 billion was spent on African-American-focused media in 2018, an overall decline of 5% from the prior year, with declines in such platforms as cable television (down 1%), digital media (-12%), network TV (-13%) and syndicated TV (-11%)

“Unfortunately despite how much we watch television and look at our digital devices, it doesn’t add up to the [ad] spend that we’re seeing,” she said. “We’re watching more, and yet [advertisers] are spending less to reach us. This is a problem.” 

The White House is drafting an Executive Order that would give the Federal Communications Commission oversight on what social media operators can allow on their websites, and increase the Federal Trade Commission's investigative powers and ability to sue offending companies. The proposal would significantly restrict protections of Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act.

Reports from CNN and Politico about the Executive Order draft emerged just as the White House hosted a Friday meeting of technology companies to explore online violent rhetoric and images. President Donald Trump signaled plans for such an effort to crackdown on liberal bias online during a "social media summit" (mostly for conservative "journalists and influencers") on July 11.

Related: Trump Looks to Enforce Fairness on Social Media 

CNN reported that it reviewed a summary of the proposed Executive Order, tentatively (and somewhat counter-intuitively) titled "Protecting Americans from Online Censorship." A White House official declined to discuss the draft. According to CNN, the summary claims that the White House has received more than 15,000 complaints of social media platforms censoring American political discourse.

The plan would give the FCC authority to identify social media sites that do not qualify for the 'good-faith immunity" of Section 230, according to CNN. The proposal also calls for the FCC to develop new regulations to clarify how and when social media websites can remove or suppress content.

The rules would affect platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat, Instagram, Google and other technology firms that curate content on their sites. The proposal envisions that the FTC would create a "public complaint docket" and would work with the FCC to develop a report on how tech firms curate their platforms and whether they do so in a neutral way, according to CNN's coverage.

Any company with a user base of at least one-eighth of the U.S. population would be subject to scrutiny, according to the draft.

Politico quoted an unnamed White House official as explaining that, “If the Internet is going to be presented as this egalitarian platform and most of Twitter is liberal cesspools of venom, then at least the President wants some fairness in the system.”

Analysts have pointed out that agencies will not be able to draft rules or enforce objectives without Congressional action.

Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR), who wrote Section 230, characterized the Trump plan as "horrible" and told CNN that neither the FCC nor the FTC appear eager "to carry it out."

Sources told Washington reporters that the Executive Order has been in development for a considerable period and is subject to change; they also acknowledged that there is no timetable for issuing the Executive Order. Neither the FTC nor FCC had any immediate comment on the proposal.

USA Network’s WWE Monday Night Raw series was the most social television show last week, according to Nielsen.

The live, three hour show drew 2.3 million combined Facebook, Instagram and Twitter interactions to top all cable and broadcast shows for the week of March 4 to March 10, according to Nielsen’s Social Content Ratings.

ABC’s March 10 episode of American Idol was second with 1.2 million interactions, followed by ABC’s March 4 The Bachelor show, with 1 million interactions. USA’s March 5 WWE SmackDown! (954,000) and ABC’s March 6 American Idol (912,000) rounded out the top five most social TV shows of the week, according to Nielsen. 

In addition to announcing that its global community has pushed past the 1 billion mark, Instagram this week introduced IGTV, a new app for long-form, vertical video for the social media platform's array of creators.

Instagram is offering IGTV via a stand-alone app an integrated with the flagship Instagram app, enabling users to share videos that are up to an hour long. It will be rolling out globally over the next few weeks on Android and iOS.

“Just like turning on the TV, IGTV starts playing as soon as you open the app,” Kevin Systrom, Instagram’s co-founder and CEO, explained in this blog post, calling IGTV the start of a “new chapter of video on Instagram.”

Users will get instant access to videos from others they are following on Instagram, and can use the swippable interface to connect with more personalized “For You” selections, as well as a curated selection of popular videos and creator “channels” that are offered on IGTV. IGTV users can also like and comment on IGTV videos and send videos directly to other users.

Though IGTV is being viewed by some as a potential YouTube rival, given its focus on its creator community, the new offering’s focus on portrait-mode video and the notion of channels also is a nod of sorts to the approach of Dreams, a startup led by execs late of Google and Instagram that recently relaunched a mobile TV service that features licensed content from partners such as Discovery Communications and Bloomberg that’s been optimized for smartphone screens.

RELATED: Dreams Launches Mobile TV Lineup, Raises $5M

As part of the promotional effort for its new series Yellowstone, set on a huge ranch bordering on the famed national park, Paramount Network turned to the nature lovers at National Geographic.

Yellowstone will be featured in a social media campaign highlighted by story takeovers on the National Geographic’s Hero and National Geographic’s Travel Instagram accounts.

The stories will feature images by renowned nature photographer David Guttenfelder, who was embedded on the Yellowstone set in Montana, capturing photos of the product, the scenery and of star Kevin Costner. Guttenfelder himself has 1 million followers on Instagram

The big idea, according to Anhelo Reyes, senior VP for consumer marketing at Paramount Network, was to tap into National Geographic's big audience of people who love the outdoors and nature because Yellowstone feels like one of the characters in the series.

“We worked with National Geographic to identify a photographer that has a unique perspective on the West,” Reyes said. Guttenfelder “spent some time on the set, taking photos as well as video, of the landscape, the life of ranching, as well as some of our talent, specifically Kevin Costner.”

A combination of the content created by Guttenfelder and Paramount will appear on Nat Geo’s accounts on Instagram, where Nat Geo Hero is the most-followed brand with 86 million followers.

“We continuously challenge ourselves to push the boundaries of how we create interesting and engaging stories for our partners” said Mike Wiese, senior VP of branded content at Nat Geo. “We’re excited to work with Paramount on a multi-platform partnership to bring the story of Yellowstone to life through the lens of National Geographic photographer David Guttenfelder whose photos showcase this iconic landscape.”

The series, premiering Wednesday (June 20) is about John Dutton, played by Costner, who owns Yellowstone Ranch, the largest ranch in the U.S., bordering on the National Park. The ranch is in constant conflict with its neighbors, including an expanding town and Indian reservation.

Read more at broadcastingcable.com.

Last night’s WWE Monday Night Raw episode on USA Network drew nearly 3 million social media interactions, said Nielsen.

The show averaged 2.8 million Facebook, Instagram and Twitter interactions to top all television shows on Monday, according to Nielsen's daily Social Content Ratings report.

ABC’s American Idol finished second with 739,000 interactions, followed NBC’s The Voice, Fox’s Lucifer and VH1’s Love & Hip Hop: Atlanta.

TNT drew more than 1 million interactions for its Miami Heat-Philadelphia 76ers (1.7 million interactions) and its San Antonio Spurs-Golden State Warriors (1.4 million) NBA Playoffs telecasts, besting all live TV sports telecasts, according to Nielsen. 

Research company Canvs is adding Instagram to the social media it studies to gauge emotional responses among viewers for its TV programming and advertising clients.

Canvs also said it has figured out how to read and analyze emojis, giving it extra insights into what young Generation Z consumers are feeling. Harnessing that information about emotional responses has proved powerful in predicting program ratings and commercial recall.

Adding the fast growing social-media platform to the company’s current data from Twitter and Facebook provides clients with a more balanced look at social media activity, Stuart Schwartzapfel, Canvs chief strategy officer, said.

Much of Instagram’s content is visual, making it more difficult to quantify and analyze posts than on Facebook or Twitter.

“It is heavily visual, but there is a scalable amount of commentary, either in the form of rich text or emoji usage that we’re seeing as pretty scalable on Instagram,” Schwartzapfel says.

Canvs found that about half of the messages on brand pages — including those of TV networks — include emojis, making understanding them imperative.

Canvs’s data science team did a study across Instagram and social media at large to understand which emojis are most prevalent, and it identified 1,000 emojis that are most commonly used.

Read more at broadcastingcable.com.

Sen. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) says Facebook and Instagram need to do more to curb guns sales via social networking, including coming up with a better monitoring system than reliance primarily on user reporting.

Facebook, following letters from Markey on the subject last November and again in July, announced that neither it nor co-owned Instagram would allow firearms listings, but Markey says, citing media reports, that the social media sites are still being used to "pursue" those sales.

Facebook and Instagram told Markey that, since January, they have prohibited listings of peer-to-peer guns sales of any kind, they would continue to remove content when made aware of it and notify law enforcement "where appropriate," appropriate being where there is a "direct, credible risk to others' safety" or it is necessary to detect and prevent fraud or other illegal activity.

Peer-to-peer sales are as distinguished from postings by online retailers about gun purchases that are made off of Facebook. It also pointed out that even before the January policy change they had education efforts about peer-to-peer gun sales complying with relevant laws and regulations, and prevented minors from accessing that content when it became aware they were doing so.

"Despite the companies’ policies prohibiting those [gun] sales, it remains too easy for users to solicit and conduct private gun sales through Facebook and Instagram," said Markey. “While I commend the platforms’ facilitating the reporting of prohibited content related to gun sales by users, I urge Facebook and Instagram to redouble their efforts to develop and deploy technology that can enforce their gun-sales ban without relying so heavily on user reporting. Facebook and Instagram’s ban on private firearms sales should have the teeth it needs to be effective, so that it can truly prevent guns from falling into the hands of those who should not have them."

Turns out that Hillary Clinton is in the minority when she talks about favoring a Snapchat app that automatically deletes messages (she is under the gun over allegedly classified emails on her server), but that may be a factor of age.

In a new Pew Research Center survey, only 17% of respondents with smart phones use apps like Snapchat or Wickr, which do not preserve messages, compared with 36% who use messaging apps such as Kik or iMessage, which do.

But those numbers change markedly among younger demos. Roughly half of smartphone users ages 18-30 use a messaging app, and 41% use a message-deleting app.

Pew pointed out that such apps are free and, when used with WiFi, don't use up SMS data. The study also noted that message-deleting apps offer more private online socializing than Facebook or Twitter.

The study found that use of Pinterest and Instagram has doubled since 2012, with 31% using Pinterest, up from 15% in 2012, and 28% using Instagram, up from 13% in 2012.

Growth has leveled off, however. None of the social media platforms in the survey had significant increases in the number of users between September 2014 and April 2015, though among those who already use them, frequency of use had increased significantly.

Facebook continues to dominate among social media sites, with 72% of online respondents saying they use it, 70% daily and 43% several times a day.

The study found that 15% of Internet users are on discussion forums including reddit, Digg or Slashdot, while 10% use Tumblr.

The survey was conducted March 17-April 12, 2015, among 1,907 adults 18-plus (of whom 1,612 are Internet users). The margin of error for all respondents was plus-or-minus 2.6 percentage points.

NBCUniversal and Jeep have launched a multiplatform social media campaign across four NBCU networks to cross-promote NBC’s March 29 telecast of the second annual IHeartRadio Music Awards, which includes a new Jeep-sponsored award, and the availability of the 2015 Jeep Renegade.

Starting yesterday (Feb. 8) through March 29, Bravo, E!, Syfy and NBC are each running network-specific spots soliciting viewers to post photos of their adventurous lives on Twitter and Instagram with the hashtag #RenegadeLifeContest; submissions will be featured on the networks’ websites, with winning photos to be featured in future campaign spots.

Additionally, three participating viewers will be selected to attend the IHeartRadio Music Awards in Los Angeles, where they will also be part of filming a custom, NBCUniversal-produced Jeep Renegade spot that will air during the March 29th broadcast. The three also will receive a 2015 Jeep Renegade.

Bravo has already placed its call to action on its website, directing viewers to tune in during Real Housewives of Atlanta on Sunday nights to see if their photos have been chosen.

The campaign also spotlights a new “Renegade” award, sponsored by Jeep, to recognize artists who “defy convention and let their instincts rule”; the nominees are Brantley Gilbert, Charli XCX, Hozier, Iggy Azalea and Meghan Trainor.

“We know that our Millennial audience looks to multiple engagement platforms … to discover what's new and share this content,” said Kim Adams House, Head of Jeep Brand Advertising, FCA US. “Through this partnership, we’re able to offer this group the opportunity to learn more about our vehicle through channels in which they are familiar. NBCUniversal's portfolio of networks allows us to authentically interact with some of its most socially engaged audiences."

ABC Family will preview the Jan. 6 winter premiere episode of Pretty Little Liars on social media service Snapchat, the network said Monday.

Fans of the series can tune in to Snapchat to watch the first three minutes of tomorrow’s episode in short “snaps” throughout the day until 7 p.m., an hour before the premiere of the series, said network officials.

Pretty Little Liars is one of the network’s most social show. The series is the top ranked scripted series on Instagram, the top scripted show on Pinterest and represents the top six most tweeted episodes for a scripted series, according to the network.

Affluent Americans are highly engaged with traditional television but their digital media consumption is increasing significantly, according to a 2014 affluent survey conducted by global research company Ipsos.

More than 90% of Affluents -- defined in the survey as the 23% of U.S. households with at least $100,000 in yearly household income -- watched video on traditional television screens over as 7 day period, according to the report. In addition, 44% watched video on a computer, with both figures virtually unchanged from last year.

Nearly half of all Affluents have a TV connected to the Internet, 23% own a smart TV, and 23% have a TV connected to a digital media receiver or streaming device – all of which are up significantly from 2013, according to the survey.

Wealthy Americans also watch 16 hours of traditional broadcast or cable television a week – virtually matching last year’s figures – and tune into an average of more than 15 cable channels a week.  

While affluent Americans are still enjoying traditional television viewing, they are also increasingly turning to digital media for their entertainment. Video viewing on tablets increased to 25% in 2014 compared to 22% last year, while smartphone viewing increased to 31% from 28% in 2013, according to the survey.

Overall, 67% of Affluents now own a smartphone, up from 45% in 2011 and 48% own a tablet, up from a meager 9% in 2011.

Affluents are also big internet users, averaging 42.9 hours of online use weekly. Facebook is the most popular social media network, with Affluents spending more than 6 hours weekly on the site, followed by Instagram with less than five hours a week, according to the survey.

“Digital media use continues to grow, and traditional media use has changed much less than many people expected,” says Steven Krus, chief Insights Officer for Ipsos. “Consumption of new media is supplementing, not supplanting, traditional media use – and the result is a net increase in Affluents’ overall engagement with media.”

Showtime is betting that it’s Sept. 13 Floyd Mayweather-Marcos Maidana pay-per-view boxing rematch provides a bigger PPV performance punch than its May 3 predecessor.

Saturday’s PPV fight – the fourth of Showtime’s six fight deal with the undefeated and pound-for-pound PPV king – is the first rematch for Mayweather’s during his PPV career. Showtime Sports executive vice president and general manager Stephen Espinoza told Multichannel News that the competitive nature of the first fight -- which Mayweather won by decision in a very action-packed fight – will draw more viewers to Saturday’s rematch.

Espinoza would not reveal PPV buys for Mayweather-Maidana 1, but published reports put the total around 900,000 buys. Mayweather had generated more than 1 million buys in each of his last six fights before his May fight with Maidana.

“We finally found an opponent who really rose to the occasion and provided a real test for Mayweather,” Espinoza said. “There’s a group of fans who may have bypassed the first fight because they assumed Floyd would be as dominant as usual and who are now not going to miss the second one because of the element of risk. That’s not an element that’s often perceived in Mayweather fights because he is so skilled.”

Unlike the first fight where Showtime had to market the relatively unknown Maidana, Espinoza said Showtime is letting the action and competiveness of the first fight lead its marketing push to fight fans. He added the bulk of its marketing focus is focused on reaching casual and non-boxing fans who likely didn’t see the first fight.

The network has “doubled down” on digital content across all platforms, according to Espinoza. Showtime has aggressively posted short form clips on Instagram and Facebook, as well as streamed full episodes of its All Access documentary series the web. Espinoza also said the network is offering behind-the-scenes clips from both Mayweather and Maidana’s training camps in an effort to spur interest in the fight.

“We’re offering more [digital] content that we’ve ever done for any other fight,” Espinoza said.

The network is also leaning on sister broadcast network CBS to help market the fight. CBS has offered cross promotional spots on the NFL On CBS and on network-televised Southeastern Conference college football games, as well as CBS’ primetime and late night shows.

“That level of support is unprecedented in the recent past for boxing PPV’s,” said Espinoza. “The opportunity to get in front of millions of viewers at one time with our promotional content on CBS is a tremendous benefit to the event itself as well as for Floyd personally and the Showtime network.”

Mayweather’s flamboyant personality has also become part of the promotion, with the fighter using social media to market the fight. Espinoza said the fighter is the network’s secret promotional weapon.

“What we found from consumer research is that what people love about Mayweather fights is the spectacle … it’s the same reason why people who don’t watch football watch the Super Bowl and viewers who aren’t necessarily into award shows watch the Grammys,” Espinoza said. “Mayweather events are huge spectacles from the celebrity value to the circus-like [ring] entrances to the entire presentation of the event. For that reason it makes for a great collective viewing experience.”

Espinoza doesn’t believe that the fight will suffer heavily from an unusually busy 2014 PPV boxing schedule that has already produced five events, compared to only one PPV boxing event at this point last year.

“There is a little risk of consumer fatigue on the wallet, but as for the event itself it’s a very, very attractive fight,” He said.

Showtime is taking a jab at social media to promote its upcoming May 3 Floyd Mayweather-Marcos Maidana pay-per-view event.

The network has teamed with welterweight champion Mayweather’s promotional company and the cable operators to offer as many as 20 to 25 short-form videos surrounding the fight on each outlet’s respective Instagram, Vine and Facebook pages. The videos take full advantage of those burgeoning social media platforms that offer 10 to 15 second clips, letting fans keep up with the fighter’s training and appearances leading up to the fight.

“Each group will have its own set of individual content tailored for them that is organic to their own marketing,” said Showtime Sports executive vice president and general manager Stephen Espinoza. “Each of the platforms will have their own videos and will be distributing them in their own voice … the fans aren’t seeing the same videos that are posted by Showtime, Mayweather or the cable operators.”

The social media campaign will be bolstered by a multi-million dollar media campaign that will feature ads on high-profile sports events like the NBA playoffs. “For Mayweather fights in general we cast a wider net …we go after the casual sports fan and the general sports fan that may only watch one or two boxing events a year,” he said. “We know for that viewer if they’re only going to buy one or two event a year it will be a Mayweather fight.”

In addition, In Demand is offering eight classic boxing matches featuring several boxers on the Mayweather-Maidana fight card, including Adrien Broner and Amir Khan.

Espinoza wouldn’t predict how many PPV buys the fight will generate, but the network’s Sept. 14 Mayweather-Canelo Alvarez PPV event drew 2.2 million buys – the second best performance in PPV event history.