Lamakers have suggested this could be Big Tech’s “big tobacco moment”
Executives from YouTube, TikTok and Snapchat found themselves in the hot seat on Tuesday as they faced questions from U.S. lawmakers about what each is doing to ensure young users’ safety on the respective platforms. Social media has increasingly been seen as exposing young people to a variety of potentially harmful content including sexually explicit images and material promoting addictive drugs, while it has also been cited as causing depression and eating disorders with some users. “The problem is clear: Big Tech preys on children and teens to make more money,” Sen. Edward Markey, D-Mass., said at a hearing by the Senate Commerce subcommittee on consumer protection. The subcommittee had recently taken testimony from a former Facebook data scientist, who had shown how the company’s own internal data suggested that the company’s Instagram photo-sharing service had caused harm to some teams. The subcommittee has since widened its focus to other social platforms, which also compete for young user’s eyeballs. Lawmakers have suggested this could be Big Tech’s “big tobacco moment,” a reference to the fact that tobacco executives knew their product was dangerous, yet advertised it to the youth market. As NPR reported, Sen. Markey asked the three executives – Michael Beckerman, a TikTok vice president and head of public policy for the Americas; Leslie Miller, vice president for government affairs and public policy of YouTube’s owner Google; and Jennifer Stout, vice president for global public policy of Snapchat parent Snap Inc.
