Instagram CEO Adam Mosseri received a broadside of complaints before a Senate committee on Wednesday over what lawmakers see as the company’s lack of action to protect teens using its platform.
The Meta-owned site, along with other popular platforms like TikTok and Snapchat, have been at the center of lawmakers’ hearings in recent months as Congress considers legislation in areas such as consumer privacy, algorithm transparency and Section 230 reform. The latter has to do with the broad liability protection that tech companies have had for third party content posted on their site.
While Mosseri released advanced testimony that included calls to an industry body to determine best practices “for how to verify age, design age-appropriate experiences and how to build parental controls,”
“I believe the time for self policing and self regulation is over,” said Sen. Richard Blumenthal (C-CT), who was chairing the hearing before a Senate Commerce subcommittee on consumer protection, product safety and data security.
The top Republican on the subcommittee, Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN), said that she was “just a little bit frustrated” that “nothing changes. Nothing.”
“This is the fourth time in past two years that we have spoken with someone from Meta … and I feel like the conversation repeats itself ad nauseam,” she said.
More to come.
