The efforts by Big Tech companies in recent weeks to add protections for teenagers and minors have failed to mollify critics on Capitol Hill ahead of a high-profile hearing this week.
The CEOs of Meta, X, TikTok, Snap, and Discord are scheduled to appear on Wednesday before the Senate Judiciary Committee, where they will have to address the effects that their apps have had on what the committee has termed the “Online Child Sexual Exploitation Crisis.”
Some companies, including Meta and X, have responded in recent weeks to the scrutiny from Congress by offering new privacy policies and expanding their teams to address problematic content. But these changes are not sufficient in the eyes of some skeptics in Congress.
Meta’s changes are “failing to address the online safety issues,” Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) told the Washington Examiner after Meta tightened its privacy settings for teenagers, saying that the policy changes were made because of the Jan. 31 hearing.
Meta announced in the weeks before the hearing that it was increasing privacy for teenage users, barring strangers from sending direct messages to minors, and sharing internal data with researchers. X announced on Sunday it is hiring a new Trust and Safety team to handle content moderation on the platform and that X CEO Linda Yaccarino intends to meet with lawmakers on both sides of the aisle before the hearing.
The policy changes are “putting little Band-Aids when it’s a gushing headwound of harms to children,” Lina Nealon, the vice president of the National Center on Sexual Exploitation, told the Washington Examiner. Meta and other companies made similar policy changes in 2021 before they appeared on the Hill for a similar hearing, Nealon said.
Nealon has called for the passage of the Kids Online Safety Act, a bill introduced by Blumenthal and Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN). KOSA would require social media companies to implement controls for users, including options for limiting screen time, restricting addictive features, and limiting access to user profiles. The legislation was approved by the Commerce Committee in July and is awaiting a floor vote.
Most technology industry groups have opposed KOSA, arguing that it violates the First Amendment and that it is too heavy-handed in its attempt to protect teenagers. Snap, the creator of Snapchat, reversed its position on Jan. 25 and said it supported KOSA.
A key question regarding Wednesday’s hearing is whether it will generate momentum for the passage of KOSA or other legislation. Nealon said she hopes the Wednesday hearing will inspire lawmakers to take additional action.
The five company leaders will likely face questions on how their algorithms promote and moderate harmful content to minors and how they profit from teenage users. They’ll also be asked about the damage these products do to young users, whether through messaging apps or algorithmic promotions. The companies will also likely be pressed on how much they’re investing in staff to ensure the safety of children as well as what steps they are taking to combat child sexual abuse material on their platforms.
“This hearing will uncover a lot of what these tech corporations know,” Nealon said. “And I’m hopeful this will inspire this Congress to become the ‘child protection Congress’ and that the members will want this to be their legacy.”
Technology hearings often end up just being “pure performative politics,” Collin Walke, the cybersecurity lead at the law firm Estill Hall and a former Oklahoma legislator, told the Washington Examiner. “[Congress] is talking tech, but they don’t know tech. But they’re being able to say, ‘Look, we did something because we’re investigating. We’re having committee hearings. We’re doing something.'” Walke said he wishes to see legislation being passed to protect younger users but is unconvinced Congress will do so this term.
Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg and TikTok’s Shou Zi Chew have been called before the Hill before, but they often faced a litany of questions from lawmakers who struggled to understand the technical particulars of data privacy or how the algorithms work.
The hearing takes on particular importance as other states sue the apps over their effects on teenage mental health.
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Over 40 states sued Meta in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California in October, alleging that Meta hid the amount of damage that its apps had caused to teenagers through the promotion of addictive behavior and promotion of harmful content. New Mexico also filed a suit against Meta in December, accusing it of hosting a “marketplace of predators” and failing to do enough to crack down on the sale of child sexual abuse material.
At least four states have attempted to restrict teenage access to social media by requiring the platforms to verify a user’s age through copies of IDs or other means. The tech advocacy group NetChoice filed suits against age verification laws in California, Arkansas, Ohio, and Utah and succeeded in obtaining preliminary holds in all four states.
