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In the year since whistleblower Frances Haugen alleged that Facebook and Instagram knowingly downplayed how their products harm young people, stoke division, and weaken democracy, U.S. lawmakers have advanced a flurry of legislative proposals aimed at regulating social media and the tech sector as a whole.
But despite hours of hearings and testimony, none of the measures have been signed into law. Many of the proposals are caught in the debate over whether the government can regulate how platforms deal with harmful content or misinformation. The main reason, technology experts say, is America’s strong free speech laws, which are unlike any in the world.
Instead, the biggest changes since last year may be in the minds of consumers, who now are more skeptical than ever of Big Tech.
“We’ve had what people are now calling a ‘techlash’ against this idea that social media is always a good thing and is part of the world getting better and better,” says Ethan Zuckerman, an associate professor of public policy, communication, and information at the University of Massachusetts Amherst.
The Haugen effect
The Facebook Papers revealed thousands of pages of leaked internal company research detailing how Facebook (now rebranded to Meta) operated, including how its algorithm fostered anger to drive engagement. The documents were disclosed by Haugen to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission before being provided to Congress in redacted form. They also formed the basis for the Wall Street Journal’s “Facebook Files” series, which began publishing on Sept. 13, 2021.
In the 12 months since the Journal published the first news story based on Haugen’s leaks and shook up the tech sector, there has been an unprecedented push to curb the industry’s power. Congress held a series of hearings on social…
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Source : time
