Instagram has announced that starting today and over the next few months, it will randomly select users in the United States to ask them to tell them about their race and ethnicity through a survey organized by YouGov, and that they will be able to participate on an optional basis, without in any case having any impact on the experience they receive.
Behind it are the intentions of the Meta Platforms social platform to learn in depth about how minority communities use Instagram as part of an exhaustive investigation that they are carrying out through the Equity team.
Seeking the inclusivity of minority communities
Without knowing race or ethnicity, they said in a statement, they would have limited ability to understand how products affect different communities. The use of YouGov responds to the fact that it is an international research group that helps companies to conduct surveys safely.
In this sense, they indicate that YouGov collects the individual answers anonymously, encrypting them and dividing them into parts to store them in the associated research institutions, which in the case of Instagram, will only have access to aggregated information, so that it will not be able to link the answers received with the accounts of the users who participated.
More precisely, Instagram notes that:
This information will allow us to better understand the experiences different communities are having on Instagram, how our technology may affect different groups, and if there are any changes we can make to promote fairness.
Adam Mosseri, the main person in charge of Instagram, points out in a video posted today (on Twitter) that collecting the data will help Instagram find ways to improve for its users:
“If we’re going to make sure Instagram is a fair and equitable experience, we need to understand how it works for different communities.”
For Stephan Shakespeare, Executive Director, YouGov:
Our mission is to provide the most honest and accurate data through transparent and fully authorized interactions with consumers around the world. We are excited to use this capability to help Meta better understand the experiences different communities have and create more equitable products.
More information: Instagram
