Why the latest series of Facebook leaks is more politically potent

 Facebook, the biggest social media platform in the world may finally be held accountable for their “two-faced” toxicity. Frances Haugen who was a previous worker at Facebook just testified highlighting Facebook’s “moral bankruptcy” and Facebook downplaying its adverse impacts on teenage depression and ethnic violence.

For many years there has been suspecting of the negative impacts that social media has on young adults, but never any means of proving it, but now Haugen has released corporate documents to prove of Facebook’s ignorance. She proved that Facebook did research that showed there was a relationship between Instagram use and teens’ suicidal thoughts and eating disorders. Facebook still ignored their findings and still prioritized sending teens this content that elevated their anxiety. In 2018 another person outed Facebook for releasing data used for political profiling for Donald Trump’s campaign.  Mark Zuckerberg did apologize for this and agreed to a settlement with America’s consumer protection agency. Although Facebook did have a 5 billion dollar settlement for their 2018 data leak, no laws have been changed to hold accountable tech bosses for their poor behavior.

How is congress going to take action to control tech bosses? It is hard to say if they will come out with a law soon to protect social media users, but the hope is that this will trigger more whistleblowers to come out about these major issues. If anything there is a hope that Congress will at least focus in on protecting children online. Congress could strengthen the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act that protects children under the age of 13, and raise that age. Legislative proposals are also taking aim at marketing and design features that cause social media to be so addictive for the young.

There is a high chance that there will be many more leaks for the social media powerhouse. Facebook’s vice president of policy and global affairs defended the company and expressed that they took down 49m posts last year that violated policies on terrorism and hatred. In 2021, there is little to no privacy with 70% of the US population owning a social media account. Facebook has violated so many people’s privacy, can no longer count on privacy either.

https://www.economist.com/united-states/facebook-flounders-in-the-court-of-public-opinion/21805344