Congress s Social-Media Spectacle – WSJ

It s hard to do, but Senators on the Judiciary Committee almost made Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg and other social-media execs look sympathetic. Tennessee Sen. Marsha Blackburn accused Mr. Zuckerberg of trying to be the premiere sex trafficking site in this country. South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham thundered, I know you don t mean it to be so, but you have blood on your hands.

Big Tech is a popular target on the political right and left, and there s no question that social media has contributed to increasing mental illness among teens. Their app features have been exploited by misanthropes, drug dealers and sexual predators.

Social-media algorithms can drive teens who are at a psychologically vulnerable period in their lives into rabbit holes. Research also shows that some cope with mental illness by turning to social media, which can aggravate their problems as alcohol and drugs do. Parents express frustration that they don t know what their children do online.

While companies like Meta and Snap provide tools that let parents control and see what children are doing, these are cumbersome. Teens must also give their parents access to their apps. Snap CEO Evan Spiegel said only 400,000 of the company s 20 million teen users linked their accounts to their parents through its parent supervision tool.

via www.wsj.com

The lamest branch.