U.S. lawmakers are putting forward proposals to curb social media giants by limiting their free-speech protections against legal liability.
December 1,2021 U.S. lawmakers are putting forward proposals to curb social media giants by limiting their free-speech protections against legal liability. Their efforts are coming after a former Facebook product manager presented a case that the company’s systems amplify online hate and extremism and fail to protect young users from harmful content. That whistleblower, Frances Haugen, is expected to weigh in on the lawmakers’ proposals at a House hearing on Wednesday. Her previous disclosures have spurred legislative and regulatory efforts around the world aimed at cracking down on Big Tech, and she made a series of appearances recently before European lawmakers and officials who are drawing up rules for social media companies. Haugen, a data scientist who worked in Facebook’s civic integrity unit, buttressed her assertions with a massive trove of internal company documents she secretly copied and provided to federal securities regulators and Congress. When she made her first public appearance this fall, laying out a far-reaching condemnation of the social network giant before a Senate Commerce subcommittee, she had thoughts on how Facebook’s platforms could be made safer and prescriptions for actions by Congress. She rejected the idea of breaking up the tech giant as many lawmakers are calling for, favoring instead targeted legislative remedies. Most notably, they include new curbs on the long-standing legal protections for speech posted on social media platforms.
