Lawmakers signaled more hearings, oversight to come.
Former Facebook employee Frances Haugen spoke in front of the Senate Commerce Committee about the company’s impact on young users.A former Facebook employee turned whistleblower testified before a Senate Commerce subcommittee on Tuesday -- alleging blatant disregard from Facebook executives when they learned their platform could have harmful effects on foreign democracies and the mental health of children.
Although senators from both parties appeared to support her calls to regulate Facebook, how and when that might happen was unclear.Lawmaker: Facebook facing its 'Big Tobacco moment' in targeting of children With several comparisons to the tobacco industry, a majority of Haugen's testimony focused on harmful consequences once she said children get addicted to Facebook's platforms.
Haugen claimed children are a targeted demographic for Facebook, referencing the company's recent project"Instagram Kids." The company paused the project after it came under public scrutiny. "It would get us positive points from the public," Haugen recalled."That kind of duplicity is why we need to have more transparency and why, if we want to have a system that is coherent with democracy, we must have public oversight from Congress."Zuckerberg, she said, was apparently also presented with options to remove the MSI algorithm in the case of Myanmar, a country where Facebook has been allegedly used to incite violence and spread hate speech.
"It's time to begin to create standard rules for the internet," Pietsch said in a statement."It's been 25 years since the rules for the internet have been updated, and instead of expecting the industry to make societal decisions that belong to legislators, it is time for Congress to act.
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