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A prominent Democratic senator and former Facebook On Tuesday, the employee argued that the social media company knowingly harmed children, similar to past exploits of the tobacco industry.
The offensive line comparing smoking to social media emerged during a Senate hearing that featured testimony from Frances Haugen, a former US citizen. Facebook person who works and self-reports, how Facebook and the Instagram product works.
said Facebook determined to increase its audience by “connecting the kids” to an “addictive experience”.
“Bullying follows them home,” he testified. “Follows them into the bedrooms.”
Connecticut Democratic Senator Richard Blumenthal said: Facebook and other big tech companies are facing a “Big Tobacco moment, a moment of reckoning.” said the accusations Facebook He knows his product harms children and reminds him of his experience as Connecticut attorney general following tobacco companies that know their products cause cancer.
“Big Tech is now facing the jaw-dropping real moment of Big Tobacco. Documented proof of that Facebook Blumenthal said.
Ms. Haugen was likewise accused Facebook hurting children and how the public had less insight Facebook It operates more about tobacco companies than the public does.
“Facebook they will tell you privacy means they can’t give you data. That’s not true,” Ms. Haugen told the senators. “When tobacco companies claim that filter cigarettes are safer for consumers, scientists could independently invalidate these marketing messages and confirm that they actually pose a greater threat to human health. The public cannot do the same. Facebook. We have no choice but to take the marketing messages with blind faith.”
to understand how Facebook Mr Blumenthal said last week his office acted like a 13-year-old girl on Instagram following accounts about diet and eating disorders. Mr Blumenthal said his fake account soon received recommendations to follow other accounts promoting self-harm and eating disorders.
Tennessee Republican Senator Marsha Blackburn said she was looking into the matter. Facebook for trafficking related issues, increased risk of girls committing suicide, and other issues.
Facebook He objected to criticism that he knowingly harmed children. During testimony before the same subcommittee of the Senate Commerce Committee last week, Facebook executive Antigone Davis said people mischaracterized the findings of her company’s internal research.
“I saw firsthand the troubling intersection between the pressure to be perfect and body image and finding your identity at that age,” Ms Davis told Mr Blumenthal last week. “And I think what got lost in this report is, actually, with this research, we discovered that more and more teenage girls are finding Instagram really helpful. Teenage girls suffering from these issues find Instagram [more] It is more beneficial than not.”
Ms. Haugen said Congress and the Biden administration should act against it. Facebook It’s similar to the government’s response to the tobacco industry: with more regulation.
Lena Pietsch, a Facebook The policy spokesperson said Ms. Haugen had worked at the company for less than two years and had not attended any meetings with “C-level executives”.
“We do not agree with her characterization of many of the issues she has testified about,” Ms Peitsch said in a statement. “For all that, we agree on one thing: It’s time to start establishing standard rules for the Internet. It’s been 25 years since the internet rules were updated and it’s time for Congress to act instead of waiting for the industry to make social decisions from legislators.”
Ms. Blackburn said on Tuesday that Congress will look at ways she thinks. Facebook violated and avoided federal law, specifically the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act. He said he and the subcommittee on consumer protection, product safety and data security, led by Mr. Blumenthal, would encourage Congress to take action on privacy and data security.
While Democrats and Republicans wanted to make changes that affect big tech companies, there was no consensus on what needed to be done.
Last week, members of the Senate Commerce Committee discussed their shared desire to crack down on tech companies, but differed on what to do. Democrats proposed more taxpayer dollars for the Federal Trade Commission, and some Republicans expressed concern about more layers of bureaucracy and more spending.
Ms Blackburn made clear on Tuesday that she is willing to work with Democrats to advance a crackdown.
“Passing a federal privacy standard has been in the works for a long time. … I think it will be this Congress and this subcommittee that will lead the reforms of online privacy, data security, Chapter 230.”
Facebook On Monday, congress faced more challenges outside the courtroom. The company’s products, including Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp, all gone offline for a few hours.
Facebook It apologized for the service outage and said “there was no malicious activity behind this outage”.
“Our engineering teams have learned that configuration changes in the backbone routers that coordinate network traffic between our data centers are causing issues that interrupt this communication,” Santosh Janardhan said. Facebook the vice president said on the company’s website. “This disruption to network traffic has gradually affected the way our data centers communicate, halting our services.”
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