The Hidden Hand Influencing Social Media Regulation - Putting Our Children At Risk

In our book, Street Smart Safety for Women, we discuss how the former Facebook company (now Meta and including Instagram) prioritizes profits over the safety of its more than three billion (now almost 4 billion) users, specifically endangering women and children.

Our discussion was based on The Facebook Files, a series of articles by the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) in October 2021 that was drawn from tens of thousands of internal company documents submitted to the SEC and Congress by Frances Haugen, a former Meta product manager turned whistleblower.

Senate Subcommittee Hearings: 2021

In The Facebook Files and subsequent testimony to a Senate subcommittee in October, 2021, Ms. Haugen explained how Meta is aware of how its products harm teen’s mental health, contribute to misinformation and the open use of human trafficking on its platforms. However, the corporation chooses to focus on “breakneck growth and astronomical profits.”

At the hearing, lawmakers from both parties insisted that this was an issue that they could agree on, that they were united behind user’s safety, and that Haugen’s disclosures were the motivation that they needed on Capitol Hill to take action.

But we wrote, “There were Congressional hearings and a lot of pearl clutching aplenty on both sides of the aisle, calling for change. Ms. Haugen testified before Congress in hopes that the bombshell would provoke government oversight of Facebook. But ultimately, Congress could not decide what to do, so they did what they have always done: nothing.”

In fact, despite the massive effect of technology and social media on our daily lives over the last decade, Congress has passed absolutely zero legislation surrounding it. In fact, it has done absolutely nothing about it in the 21st century.

By law, social media companies aren’t held responsible for anything posted on their platforms. Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act (CDA) of 1996 provides them with immunity regarding content posted by users of their platform, nor are they responsible for any crimes that are committed on their platform. And that hasn’t changed since, well, 1996. Which means that they “self-regulate” and do whatever they feel like doing since there aren’t any laws to break.

And that’s just the way that the social media companies like it.

Social Media Impact on Our Children

Before we go on, let’s understand how we definitively know that social media is negatively impacting our young people, and that this isn’t just repression of free speech.

First of all, according to the American Psychological Association (APA): Children’s brains change between the ages of ten and twelve, “making social rewards (compliments on a new hairstyle, laughter from a classmate) a lot more satisfying…making preteens extra sensitive to attention and rewards from others.” And their brain makes no differentiation between online or offline attention. In other words, “Young people’s biology is making them particularly vulnerable to – and in some cases, even exploited by social media.” 

Secondly, in May, 2023, pointing out the effects on teen’s brain development, the U.S. Surgeon General issued an Advisory calling attention to the growing concerns of social media on young people’s mental health. The Advisory noted the effects on young women in particular: “A study conducted among 14-year-olds found that greater social media use predicted poor sleep, online harassment, poor body image, low self-esteem, and higher depressive symptom scores with a larger association for girls than boys.”

In addition, in April, 2023, the Guardian published the results of their two-year investigation into repeated claims that Facebook and Instagram have become major sales platforms for child trafficking. “What makes social media platforms so powerful as a tool for traffickers…is the way that they make it possible to identify and cultivate relationships with both victims and potential sex buyers. Traffickers can advertise and negotiate deals by using different features of the same platform: sellers sometimes post publicly about the girls they have available, and then switch to private direct messages to discuss prices and locations with buyers.”

And last, but certainly not least, recent Meta documents show that one hundred thousand children a day are sexually harassed on its platforms. 

It appears that the experiment of allowing social media companies to “self-regulate” isn’t going well for our young people.

Senate Subcommittee Hearings: 2024

In the little over two years since Ms. Haugen testified, where do we stand now?

Now that the effects of social media on our children are becoming more widely understood, legislators are under increasing fire by families who have lost loved ones to the effects of social media on their mental health. As the result, a growing number of lawmakers are (still/again) urging legislation to curb the spread of child sexual abuse images online and to make the tech platforms accountable for better safeguarding children.

So, yet another Senate subcommittee hearing was recently held to do something after years of inaction by Congress in regulating social media companies.  

On January 31, 2024, four social media executives were called before yet another Senate subcommittee. The CEO’s of Meta, Tic Toc, Snap and X (formerly Twitter) were “grilled” by “outraged” Senators on both sides of the aisle who (again) took the opportunity to grandstand for their constituents, many acting as though that they’d never heard of such a thing.

With the families of young people who’d lost their lives as the result of social media harm looking on, one Senator “strongly” challenged Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg to apologize to the families, which he did, sort of. He said that “I’m sorry for everything you’ve been through.” An “apology” that accepted no responsibility. And, as with many empty amends, there was no commitment to action.

 Astronomical Profits

To be fair, Mr. Zuckerberg testified during the hearing that Meta spent $5B on safety in 2023. It seems like a lot of money, doesn’t it? But is it?

The day after the hearings, no sooner had the Senator’s dusted off their hands and gone back to the office (or whatever it is that they do) after their hard work of public thrashing social media executives, Meta announced blowout Q4 2023 earnings. The company reported a 25% year-over-year surge in quarterly revenue to $40.1B, and annual revenue of almost $135B, while profit more than tripled. It further announced its first-ever dividend and a $50B stock buyback. That amount topping its 2023 stock buyback of $40B and 2022 buyback of $28B.

That $5B Meta spent on user safety in 2023? Well, kiddos…Meta has priorities, and your safety isn’t one of them. It seems as though Ms. Haugen was on to something when she discussed the company’s focus on “astronomical profits.”

The Hidden Hand

Why is it that our lawmakers seem unable to pass legislation on the one issue that they seemingly agree on: Our children’s safety? It turns out that there is a hidden hand behind the gridlock: Lobbyists. In our book, we note: “On January 21, 2022, the Washington Post reported that seven of the largest tech companies spent a record $70M in 2021 lobbying the U.S. government. The companies (Meta, Google, Amazon, Apple, Uber, Twitter (now X) and Microsoft) are spending to limit any legislation that would curtail their power and influence. The article notes that Meta led the pack, spending just over $20M….

What do these social media giants get for their investment? Exactly what they paid for: Zero oversight by legislators.”

So, continuing to focus on Meta, what is their current lobbying spend, a little over two years after the Washington Post article? According to Open Secrets, based on data from the Senate Office of Public Records, Meta spent $19.3M on 2023 lobbying the federal government and employs about 70 lobbyists (chart below).

$19M may seem like a lot of money, but when you compare it to Meta’s $135B profits, it’s a drop in the bucket. Quite the bargain, actually.

Source: www.opensecrets.org/federal-lobbying/clients/summary?id=D000033563 Based on data from the Senate Office of Public Records. Data for the most recent year was downloaded on January 24, 2024 and includes spending from January 1 - December 31.

Where Do We Go From Here?

If the 2024 Senate subcommittee hearings have illustrated anything, it’s that lawmakers are hopefully hearing their constituents. The only thing that is stronger than lobbyist dollars are citizen’s voices. Contact your representatives. Keep up the pressure. Make your voice heard.

In the meanwhile, keep the lines of communication open with your children. Monitor their social media. Let them know it’s for their safety, not a point of intrusion. Psychologist Dr. Amy Orbin provides insight into how parents can help their children navigate social media: Treat it like swimming in the ocean. “It can be an extremely dangerous place for children. Before parents let children swim in any open water, they make sure the child is well-prepared and equipped to handle problems that arise. They provide safety vests, swimming lessons, often in less dangerous waters, and even then, parents provide a huge amount of supervision.”

And all is not lost on the legislative front. In our next post, we’ll cover how states are filling in the legal gaps that Congress has looked away from.