{
  "id": 3460668,
  "title": "Instagram is like a digital cigarette and box of chocolates that ‘encourages gluttony.’ How do you fix that?",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/08/26/instagram-is-like-a-digital-cigarette-and-box-of-chocolates-that",
  "topic": "finance",
  "section": "Finance & Markets",
  "published": "2026-08-26T07:00:00.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "Fortune",
    "slug": "fortune",
    "url": "https://fortune.com/2026/08/26/meta-instagram-child-safety-trial-addictive-features/"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": "Meta's child-safety challenges have drawn comparisons to the tobacco industry, but unlike cigarettes, Instagram's recommendation algorithm learns what keeps users engaged, eliminating natural stopping points and using autoplay to continuously serve up content. As four states attempt to prove that Meta designed Instagram and Facebook to keep young users hooked, the company faces potential penalties of $1.4 trillion. However, removing these addictive features could also harm Instagram's appeal.\n\nLarry Magid, an online-safety advocate, argues that social media can have real benefits, such as maintaining friendships, finding communities, and accessing information. He likens Instagram's addictive features to a grocery store that automatically restocks chocolate bars as they run low, creating the same effect as gluttony. Simply removing these features isn't the solution, as Magid found it boring when he switched his Facebook feed to chronological order without the recommendation engine. The better approach would be to make recommendations less aggressive and prioritize a user's social graph, which represents a return to traditional social media.\n\nMagid has worked with Meta on safety issues for years and currently serves on their Safety Advisory Council. He emphasizes that the issue lies in prioritizing recommendations over real social interactions, and reducing aggressive recommendations could increase trust without significantly impacting Meta's revenue.",
  "summary": "“The algorithms change the whole nature of it, and that’s where my chocolate metaphor went awry,” safety advocate Larry Magid told Fortune.",
  "key_points": [],
  "editors_take": null,
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 1,
    "also_reported_by": []
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}