"The MPA has worked for decades to earn the public's trust in its rating system," Naresh Kilaru, a lawyer for the MPA, said in an Oct. 28 letter to Meta. "Any dissatisfaction with Meta's automated classification will inevitably cause the public to question the integrity of the MPA's rating system," Kilaru added in the letter, which was shared with NBC News on Wednesday.
The MPA has suggested that Meta's ratings can't be aligned at all if the company doesn't follow the MPA's 'curated process'; the cease-and-desist letter asserts that Meta's content restrictions instead 'appear to rely heavily on artificial intelligence or other automated technology measures.' While the organization said it hopes to resolve this dispute 'amicably without litigation,' it doesn't seem as though Instagram's parent company is backing down.