A US Senator found himself in the middle of an awkward misunderstanding after he wrongly assumed a ‘finsta’This was a separate service.
During a hearing about Facebook’s impact on mental health, Senator Richard Blumenthal asked the platform’s global head of safety, Antigone Davis, whether they had any intention to “end finsta” – as though it was an additional service provided by Facebook.
A ‘finsta’This slang term is used to refer to a group of words. ‘fake’And ‘Insta’A separate social media account that is only accessible to a small number of family and friends.
“Senator, again let me explain”Davis responded. “We don’t actually, we don’t actually do finsta.
“What finsta refers to is young people setting up accounts where they may want to have more privacy.”Davis politely replied.
“You refer to it as privacy from their parents. In my interactions from teens what I’ve found is that they sometimes like to have an account where they can interact just with a smaller group of friends.”
Blumenthal refused to be impressed and kept pressing Davis despite her attempts to explain.
Sign upto our new free Indy100 weekly newsletter
“Finsta is one of your products or services”He said,
“We’re not talking about Google or Apple, it’s Facebook, correct?”
Facebook’s head of safety had to break it down even further and reiterated to the Senator: “Finsta is slang for a type of account…
“It’s not a product.”
He made a shocking turn of events. stillI was unable to grasp the concept so I asked: “OK, will you end that type of account?”
Naturally, social media went into panic mode after the exchange. One responded, “Finsta is a service you offer, correct?” You can’t be serious my guy.”
“Y’all better watch out, the republicans are coming for your finsta”One person laughed.
Awkward