Surgeon General Vivek Murthy dropped a bombshell into the national debate over social media regulation on Wednesday with an opinion piece calling for Congress to slap health warning labels on social media apps. This marks a seismic shift in the federal government’s souring attitude toward social media at a time when states are passing their own laws on social media algorithms and app features aimed at protecting minors online.

Congress should not take up the surgeon general’s call to label social media like cigarettes and alcohol. Social media clearly affects the lives and development of young people in many ways, but the expansion of warning labels into the realm of mental health outcomes online is both subjective and politically loaded. 

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