Foreign adversaries are “definitely” trying to use social media platforms to affect the upcoming election, and efforts should have been made sooner to take action, Adam Mosseri, who heads Instagram, said in an interview airing Tuesday.
“We think of the election in 2020 here in the U.S. as a huge test, not only for Instagram and Facebook but for the industry at large,” Mosseri told NBC “Today” anchor Savannah Guthrie.
“It took us too long to focus on the negative that can come from connecting so many people at scale,” he further told Guthrie. “I think the biggest take away is we should have started investing more, years earlier than we did, and we’ve been playing catch up since then.”
Instagram and its owner Facebook are focusing on getting out the vote, trying to prevent against foreign interference in elections such as was seen in 2016, and then trying to work out plans for various scenarios, and the matter could become “really complicated,” said Mosseri.
When asked if the situation is a “five-alarm fire,” Mosseri responded that the stakes are “incredibly high” and that preventing interference is his “number-one priority.”
Mosseri was in charge of the news feed at Facebook during the 2016 election and called that year a “sort of learning moment for us.”
He added that he is proud of the work that’s been done in the last four years, but “this work never ends.”
He also spoke out against moves by President Donald Trump’s administration to ban the China-based video platform TikTok.
“That sets a precedent for companies all over the world to ban companies like Instagram or Facebook,” said Mosseri. “I think it’s much greater than the benefit we have from slowing down a competitor.”
He added that there are other ways to address the risks of China having data on American citizens beyond banning TikTok or forcing it to be sold, as “regulation makes much more sense.”
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