- • Senator Marsha Blackburn criticizes Meta in child safety trial
- • Blackburn cites court documents on Instagram content exposure
- • She accuses Zuckerberg of denying youth mental health harms
- • Blackburn alleges Apple News suppresses conservative publications
On Thursday, U.S. Senator Marsha Blackburn revealed further investigation into large technology companies by accusing Mark Zuckerberg of denial and dishonesty in a high profile child safety jury and suggesting that Apple Inc. has actively censored conservative news on Apple News.
In a speech in the Senate, the Tennessee Republican cited previously undisclosed court records of a case in California to look at whether social media sites are programmed in a manner that is detrimental to minors. Blackburn said: New court documents released last week have shown that almost 1 in 5 young teenagers say they see images of nudity or sexual content on instagram that they did not want to see. 1 in 5. That is only one of the outrageous facts that we have gotten to know in a celebrated trial in California that revolves around the adverse effects of the social media on American children.
Los Angeles trial is one of the highly monitored lawsuits involving Meta Platforms Inc. against families claiming that the design of the platforms can be linked with addiction and mental health damage among young users. According to Reuters market data, on Wednesday, Meta shares fell 0.7 at $508.60, which is less than the 0.4 drop in the previous session. Apple stock dropped 0.5 percent to 189.30, a day following a 0.3 percent rate of increase.
Meta Trial Takes Political Heat
According to Blackburn, the trial results were extremely disturbing and criticized Zuckerberg as he defended himself before a jury in Los Angeles. What these companies have done is deplorable. However, in his testimony last week, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg stuck to his history of denial, even in his presence, just feet away, of the mourning parents of children lost to social media harms.
Again, Zuckerberg claimed a lack of correlation between young social media usage and poor mental health outcomes. But the researcher of Meta has proved just the opposite. In a further statement after Zuckerberg appeared, Blackburn stated: "To none with surprise, Mark Zuckerberg was employing his normal denial and deception act as the parents of the game sit just a few feet away than what has happened to them as a result of the layout of his platforms to harm the young user."
She also wrote that 86 per cent of Americans would like to hold big tech companies to answer to their involvement in the social media addiction crisis. "These companies are playing the identical playbook that was used by Big Tobacco decades ago in an attempt to keep kids addicted to things that are detrimental to them."
Blackburn stated that it is time that the legislators should cease to turn a blind eye to the voice of the American people and the social media platforms must be safer by design among our children and grandchildren. Meta has already stated that it spent a lot on safety features and parental controls and has refuted allegations that its platforms are harmful to users.
Apple News Bias Allegations
Blackburn also shifted the focus to Apple, lettering Tim Cook, Chief Executive, on Feb. 19, expressing concerns of alleged political bias in Apple News. In the letter, she stated that Apple News had been systematically banning news items published by conservative sources and boosting those published by liberal sources.
As reported by the Media Research Centre (MRC), which looked at more than 600 stories that Apple News published in the morning between January 1 and January 31 this year, 440 of those were written by left-leaning news outlets.
She wrote that only a pathetic zero stories of what could be deemed right-leaning outlets were covered. Blackburn mentioned fears that Americans were not receiving the full range of opinions out there. She also cited messages by the Federal Trade Commission that cautioned the systematic suppression of opinions, which are not about political affiliation, would be against the consumer protection regulations.
Blackburn wrote that Apple News is automatically installed on Apple machines and was even claimed to be the most popular news app in the United States, Canada, and Australia in January. "One of your responsibilities is to provide access to information without preference or political biasness to any political party." Apple has not officially responded to the letter.
Nasdaq Composite, the tech stocks, declined in the afternoon by 0.3 percent, following their decline by 0.2 percent the day before, according to Reuters, as technology stocks were under wider pressure before the release of major economic data.
The Senate comments contribute to the growing cross-partisan pressure on top technological companies regarding moderation of content, safety of minors and accountability of service providers. The final decision to the Los Angeles trial and any kind of regulatory action might impact further legislative initiatives including the implementation of legislation that would levy a statutory duty of care on platforms that serve minors.
