The House of Representatives Subcommittee on Communications and Technology (of Committee on Energy and Commerce), continued hearing testimony this week from witnesses on “Big Tech,” including social media platforms.

Frances Haugen, a Facebook whistleblower, testified during the hearings “Holding Big Tech accountable: Targeted Reforms for Tech’s Legal Immunity.” Kara Frederick (research fellow in technology policy at The Heritage Foundation) also gave testimony. She explained the issues that need to be resolved. Haugen talked out about the use of social media’s divisive algorithm, and Frederick said the same. He also criticized Republican legislators for ignoring right-leaning views.

It is unclear how much liability the social media platforms should bear for content that is uploaded to their sites.

“These platforms don’t want to be held accountable and the users suffering harm deserve better from us and we will act,” said Rep. Mike Doyle (D-Penn), chair of the subcommittee.

Section 230 under the Communications Decency Act states that social media platforms, such as Facebook or Twitter, are not considered to be publishers. They therefore can’t take responsibility for any user’s content. Critics warn that allows them to have it both ways – they claim not to be responsible for what is said, yet still, delete posts that they argue violate their own community standards.

“Somehow they exist on a completely different plane and are allowed to have a completely different set of rules than everyone else,” said Rashad Robinson, president of Color of Change, one of the witnesses at Wednesday’s hearing. The fact is that freedom of speech does not mean freedom from its consequences.

Partisan Divide

Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle agree there is a problem – yet they can’t agree on what the problem actually is!

“Frances Haugen’s whistleblowing is being drowned out because Congress returns to its old dog whistles where the Republicans view the platforms as muzzling conservative vocals and the Democrats see them exercise monopoly powers and not doing enough for the misinformation outbreak,” Bhaskar Chakravorti – dean, global business, Fletcher School at Tufts University – explained via email.

“In parallel, the Biden administration has lined up a who’s who of get-tough-on-tech stars – Messrs Wu, Khan, Kanter and Chopra. Chakravorti stated that this all amounts to rhetoric over sound strategy. “While there is a lot of legitimate reason to create a framework for these platforms and visionary policy to govern them, it seems that we are stuck with partisan leadership who doesn’t have the guts to move forward. We are left to whistling in darkness, thanks to both the whistleblowers as well the dog-whistlers.

Does anyone have to be held accountable?

Most people in tech see the problem but don’t think enough is being done.

“Whether enough is being done – the answer is no. Big tech – ranging from …read more

Source:: Social Media Explorer

Author: Aaron