Days ago The Wall Street Journal reported that Facebook had kept internal research secret for two years that suggests its Instagram app makes body image issues worse for teenage girls, according to a leak from the tech firm.

Since at least 2019, staff at the company have been studying the impact of their product on its younger users’ states of mind. Their research has repeatedly found it is harmful for a large proportion, and particularly teenage girls.

A slide from one internal presentation in 2019, seen by the Wall Street Journal stated: "We make body image issues worse for one in three teen girls. Thirty-two per cent of teen girls said that when they felt bad about their bodies, Instagram made them feel worse."

Another slide said: "Teens blame Instagram for increases in the rate of anxiety and depression. This reaction was unprompted and consistent across all groups."

Today another report by The Wall Street Journal uncovered that Apple had threatened to remove Facebook from its App Store in 2019 after a BBC report found human traffickers were using the social media site to arrange the sales of its victims.  

In 2019, the BBC published a report which found that Facebook was being utilized by human traffickers in the Middle East, who were falsely advertising employment agencies that were a front for the trading and selling of people enslaved as workers.

Following the BBC article, Apple reportedly threatened to remove Facebook from its App Store, the Journal reported.

The Journal also uncovered an internal memo from 2019 that suggests Facebook was aware of the problem prior to the BBC report. One researcher for Facebook is said to have written, "was this issue known to Facebook before BBC inquiry and Apple escalation?," with a response stating, "Yes. Throughout 2018 and H1 2019 we conducted the global Understanding Exercise in order to fully understand how domestic servitude manifests on our platform across its entire life cycle: recruitment, facilitation, and exploitation."