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Instagram boss Adam Mosseri reportedly blocked or weakened efforts by employees to implement youth safety features even as parent company Meta faced mounting legal scrutiny over concerns that its popular social media apps were harming young users.

Mosseri whose name appears frequently in a sweeping lawsuit filed by 33 states accusing Meta of loading its apps with addictive features that hurt youth mental health — reportedly ignored pressure from employees to install some proposed safety features as default settings for Instagram users, according to The Information.

Meta-owned Instagram and Facebook have come under fire from critics who allege their use has fueled a slew of alarming trends among youth, including increased depression, anxiety, insomnia, body image issues and eating disorders.

Nevertheless, Instagram brass rejected a push by members of the companys “well-being team” to include app features that would encourage users not to compare themselves to others, the report said, citing three former employees with knowledge of the details.

The feature wasnt implemented despite Mosseris own admission in an internal email that he saw “social comparison” as the “existential question Instagram faces and that social comparison is to Instagram [what] election interference is to Facebook, according to the states lawsuit.

Additionally, a Mosseri-backed feature to address the social comparison problem by hiding like counts on Instagram was ultimately watered down into an optional setting that users could manually enable, the report said.

Internally, some company employees reportedly featured that the like-hiding tool would hurt engagement on the app and therefore cut into advertising revenue.

While some sources praised Mosseris commitment to promoting youth safety, others told The Information that Instagram has a pattern of making such features optional rather than automatically implementing them.

A Meta spokesperson didn’t respond specifically to questions about why the company rejected proposals for tools to counter problems arising from the social comparison issue.

We cant know what prompts any given individual to compare themselves to others, so we give people tools to decide for themselves what they do and dont want to see on Instagram,” a Meta spokesperson told the outlet.

Meta didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment from The Post.

Elsewhere, Mosseri allegedly opposed use of a tool that would have automatically blocked offensive words in direct message requests because he thought it might stop legitimate messages getting through, The Information reported, citing two former employees.

Ultimately, Instagram approved an optional filter feature in 2021 that allowed users to block a list of offensive words curated by the company or to compile their own list of offensive phrases and emojis they wanted to block.

The move reportedly rankled safety staffers, including ex-Meta engineer Arturo Bjar, who felt people of color should not be forced to confront the offensive words in order to deal with the problem. In November, Bjar testified before a Senate panel regarding harmful content on Instagram.

I went back to Instagram with the hope that Adam would be proactive about these issues and I had no evidence of that in the two years I was there, Bjar, who had initially left Meta in 2015 and returned to a role on the safety team in 2019, told the outlet.

Meta pushed back on the report, noting that Instagram has introduced a series of default safety features for its teen users, such as blocking adults 19 and older from sending direct messages to teen accounts that dont follow them.

For example, Meta said its tool hiding offensive phrases and emojis, called Hidden Words, will be enabled by default for teens starting in 2024. The company said it has made more than 20 policy announcements about teen safety since Mosseri took over Instagram in 2018.

Mosseri also responded, writing that further investments in platform safety will make our business stronger.

If teens come to Instagram and feel bullied, get unwanted advances, or see content that upsets them, theyll leave and go to one of our competitors, Mosseri said. I know how important this work is, and that my leadership will be defined by how much progress we make on it. Im committed to continuing to do more.

Mosseri was one of several Meta executives to draw scrutiny as part of a sweeping lawsuit filed in October by a coalition of 33 state attorneys general.

The suit alleged in part that Metas millions of underage Instagram users were an open secret at the company.

The suit includes an internal chat from November 2021 in which Mosseri seemingly acknowledged the apps problem with underage users, writing, tweens want access to Instagram, and they like about their age to get it now.

A month later, Mosseri testified to the Senate that children under age 13 were not permitted on Instagram. He also told lawmakers that he viewed youth online safety as critically important.

Aside from the states’ legal challenge, Meta faces another lawsuit from the state of New Mexico alleging it failed to protect young users from alleged sexual predators and bombarded them with adult sex content.

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Entertainment

Snoop Dogg becomes co-owner and investor of Swansea football club saying it’s ‘an underdog just like me’

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Snoop Dogg becomes co-owner and investor of Swansea football club saying it's 'an underdog just like me'

Snoop Dogg has become a co-owner and investor of Swansea, with the US rapper hailing the Welsh football club as “an underdog that bites back, just like me”.

The former Premier League club, which plays in the English second tier, confirmed the US rapper and producer plans to use his own money to invest in it, Sky Sports reports, although it didn’t disclose financial details.

“My love of football is well known, but it feels special to me that I make my move into club ownership with Swansea City,” the music icon said in the announcement.

“The story of the club and the area really struck a chord with me,” he added. “This is a proud, working class city and club.

“An underdog that bites back, just like me.

“I’m proud to be part of Swansea City. I am going to do all I can to help the club.”

Swansea’s American owners, led by Brett Cravatt and Jason Cohen, are trying to grow the Championship club’s global brand and increase commercial revenue.

Snoop Dogg, 53, who has 89m followers on Instagram and more than 20m on X, helped launch the team’s 2025-26 home shirt last weekend.

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The club ownership group said: “To borrow a phrase from Snoop’s back catalogue, this announcement is the next episode for Swansea City as we seek to create new opportunities to boost the club’s reach and profile.”

Luka Modric, who recently signed with AC Milan from Real Madrid, joined Swansea’s ownership group in April.

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Politics

Diane Abbott suspended from Labour Party

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Diane Abbott suspended from Labour Party

Diane Abbott has been suspended from the Labour Party pending an investigation.

A party spokesperson confirmed the decision to Sky News but did not give a reason why.

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It comes after the veteran MP defended previous comments about racism which sparked an antisemitism row and led to a year-long suspension.

She apologised at the time and was readmitted back into the party before the 2024 general election.

A Labour Party spokesperson said: “Diane Abbott has been administratively suspended from the Labour Party, pending an investigation. We cannot comment further while this investigation is ongoing.”

Sky News understands that the suspension is not related to the four rebels who lost the whip on Wednesday for “repeated breaches” of party discipline, including voting against the government’s welfare cuts.

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The action has been taken because of an interview in which she doubled down on her claim Jewish people experience racism differently to black people, which previously sparked a huge controversy.

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Diane Abbott

In a letter to The Observer in 2023, Ms Abbott argued that people of colour experienced racism “all their lives” and said that was different to the “prejudice” experienced by Jewish people, Irish people and Travellers.

Shortly after it was published, she issued a statement in which she said she wished to “wholly and unreservedly withdraw my remarks and disassociate myself from them”.

However in a new interview with BBC Radio 4’s Reflections programme this week, she said she did not look back on the incident with regret.

Ms Abbott said: “Clearly, there must be a difference between racism which is about colour and other types of racism because you can see a Traveller or a Jewish person walking down the street, you don’t know.

“But if you see a black person walking down the street, you see straight away that they’re black. They are different types of racism.”

She added: “I just think that it’s silly to try and claim that racism which is about skin colour is the same as other types of racism.

“I don’t know why people would say that.”

Commenting on the suspension, Ms Abbott told Sky News: “It’s obvious this Labour leadership wants me out. My comments in the interview with James Naughtie were factually correct, as any fair-minded person would accept.”

The clip of the interview was re-posted by Brian Leishman, one of the MPs suspended on Wednesday, who said: “Diane Abbott has fought against racism her entire life.”

Bell Riberio-Addy, who lost her role as trade envoy in yesterday’s purge, also came to Ms Abbott’s defence, saying: “Before condemning her based on headlines, I would listen to her clip and note she discussed the different forms that racism takes and condemned all forms of racism.”

Former shadow chancellor John McDonnell made similar comments, saying that in the interview his colleague “forthrightly condemns antisemitism & discusses the different forms of racism”.

But Labour MP David Taylor told Sky News he has “long thought Diane Abbott shouldn’t be a member of our party due to her appalling positions on everything from Bosnia to Syria”.

He added: “As the Jewish Labour Movement have said, antisemitism targets Jews regardless of how they look, and many in the community are visibly Jewish and suffer racism for it.”

In the interview, Ms Abbott said she “of course” condemns antisemitic behaviour in the same way she would condemn racist behaviour because of the colour of someone’s skin, adding: “I do get a bit weary of people trying to pin the antisemitic label on me because I spent a lifetime facing racism of all kinds.”

Ms Abbott made history when she was elected as Britain’s first black female MP for Labour in 1987.

She is the longest-serving female MP in the Commons, giving her the title “Mother of the House”.

As an MP on the left of the party she has often clashed with the leadership throughout her career – bar her time serving in Jeremy Corbyn’s shadow cabinet.

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Many MPs rallied in support of Ms Abbott last year when it was not clear if she would be reinstated in time for the general election, or allowed to stand.

She went on to retain her seat of Hackney North and Stoke Newington with a majority of over 15,000.

Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner hinted action could be taken against Ms Abbott when she told The Guardian earlier on Thursday that she was “disappointed” in her colleague’s remarks.

“There’s no place for antisemitism in the Labour Party, and obviously the Labour Party has processes for that,” she said.

A source close to the decision to suspend her told Sky News there is a “very slim chance” she will be allowed back in, given she did antisemitism training and apologised last time.

It raises questions about whether Ms Abbott could join the new party being formed by Mr Corbyn and former Labour MP Zarah Sultana.

For the time being, Ms Abbott will sit in the Commons as an independent MP.

Adnan Hussain, who was elected as the independent MP for Blackburn last year, said on X: “We’d be honoured to have a giant like Diane join us, she [should] come to the side that would really appreciate her for the legend she is.”

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Child who died in Minehead school coach crash was 10-year-old boy, police say

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Child who died in Minehead school coach crash was 10-year-old boy, police say

The child who died in a school coach crash in Somerset on Thursday was a 10-year-old boy, Avon and Somerset Police have said.

A specially trained officer is supporting the child’s family, the force said, adding that two children taken to Bristol Royal Hospital for Children by air ambulance remain there as of Friday.

Four children and three adults also remain in hospital in Somerset.

There were between 60 to 70 people on board when the incident happened near Minehead, just before 3pm on Thursday.

The coach was heading to Minehead Middle School when it crashed on the A396 between Wheddon Cross and Timbercombe.

Flowers outside school
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Pic: PA

Police said that 21 people were taken to hospital, including two children who were taken via air ambulance.

Gavin Ellis, chief fire officer for Devon and Somerset, said the coach “overturned onto its roof and slid approximately 20ft down an embankment”.

Rachel Gilmour, MP for Tiverton and Minehead, said the road where it happened is “very difficult to manoeuvre”.

“You have a very difficult crossing at Wheddon Cross, and as you come out to dip down into Timbercombe, the road is really windy and there are very steep dips on either side,” she told Sky’s Anna Botting.

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Tearful MP reacts to coach crash

It comes after a teacher at Minehead Middle School praised the “incredibly brave” pupils for supporting each other after the coach crash.

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“You have looked after each [other] in what was a life-changing event, we will get through this together,” they wrote on Facebook.

“I feel so lucky to be your teacher. I am so grateful to my wonderful colleagues during this time who were also fighting to help as many people as we could.”

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