top | item 39208414

'You have blood on your hands', US senator tells Zuckerberg [video]

20 points| dithered_djinn | 2 years ago |youtube.com

38 comments

order

_chu1|2 years ago

What disturbs me is these people are all angry with a complete lack of an outlook or any attempt to discover the root of the problem and create a solution. The reason young people have been detrimented by social media is because of multiple different fundemental issues.

1. Most kids and teenagers have unmonitored access to the Internet

2. Parents don't see the harm in any of this because it gets them to shut up

3. Maybe it's because of where I'm from (Alabama) but most kids come from bad home lives and mostly cope with it negatively

4. The age of not having to be somewhat technologically adequate to use the Internet since it's now behind flashy colorful locked down bricks has only made technology and society worse, but this is just my personal opinion

5. The algorithms of these platforms are engineered to promote this horrid content due to the boosts in user engagement and therefore ad-revenue, and almost all humanity and sympathy is completely lost in publicly traded companies owned by shareholders that care about nothing

Attaching ID confirmation to use TikTok or Youtube or whatever is a duct-tape fix when parents will just scan their ID so their kids will shut up. ID confirmation to use online social networks is in my honest opinion a major violation of freedom in exchange for a little bit of security (remember what Ben Franklin said?). The Internet is the place where you throw vile insults at someone 8 states away on a multiplayer game, buy those weird books you like and get a second perspective on the dumb exhaust mod you're doing on your car, we don't need to know who you are. For additional context, I'm 15 nearing 16, so maybe I'm just spiteful out of angst.

out-of-ideas|2 years ago

#5 here for sure

before Google gave results relative to the region you were in, google search results were amazing. you could search generically and get loads of websites with lots of rich content; it was not always about getting the exact 1 "absolute" answer - it was about finding MORE websites with lots of content...

it's evolved though, several times over, for their profit...

d_tr|2 years ago

> Parents don't see the harm in any of this because it gets them to shut up

My mom used to tell me this when I was a little kid, referring to parents who were buying too many video games for their kids. Those games were at least challenging and could cultivate some skills...

toomuchtodo|2 years ago

Legislators cannot fix parenting, but they can enforce controls and governance on social media platforms to govern to the mean. Duct tape fixes work when more aspirational fixes are unattainable. To the dismay of many, duct tape holds the world together.

It can be true that politicians are out of touch and all we're left with are suboptimal solutions to complex problems at scale.

> For additional context, I'm 15 nearing 16, so maybe I'm just spiteful out of angst.

Early 40s with two kids under 10 here. Welcome to the shit show.

zip1234|2 years ago

Political grandstanding--Graham compares guns to social media, except somehow skips over the idea that guns are actually designed to kill. How many people are killed from social media use?

_chu1|2 years ago

Guns are what made this country and I personally take pride in them. They are tools and aren't just made "to kill".

numpad0|2 years ago

Are social media not intended to kill people?

303uru|2 years ago

>compares guns to social media, forces a public apology

I would LOVE, LOVE, LOVE for the GOP to force a gun manufacturer to turn around and apologize, it will never happen. Ever.

The "evidence" that social media is killing kids is far from causual. I feel confident there's a link, but that's feelings. I also can't help but feel there's a lot of scapegoating social media for the struggles of a generation that's facing a lot of headwinds. Educational infrastructure is crumbling, the generational wealth gap is growing, if you talk to kids you hear very real concerns about climate change, etc... Pinning all of this on social media is like saying sour patch kids is the root cause of diabetes.

drewcoo|2 years ago

I loathe Zuck, but warhawk Lindsey Graham telling him "he has blood on his hands?" That's beyond the pale.

grounder|2 years ago

Another hypocritical statement from this guy

notfed|2 years ago

For those out of the loop like I was: some senators want to repeal Section 230 (which gives immunity to online platforms from being held liable for content posted by users) and, as seen here, have been trying out the "unhinged 'think of the children' emotional appeal using social media CEOs as strawmen" approach.

A fine approach.

What's missing though, is their motive. Why do they want to repeal Section 230?

[1] https://www.eff.org/issues/cda230

tracerbulletx|2 years ago

Cool, I guess so does the postal service and the highway system, and basically any system anyone uses while committing a crime. This narrative is such BS.

gtvwill|2 years ago

Imagine being able to keep your entire product suite safe for kids by just forcing your users to prove via id who they are and enforcing an actual age limit.

Honestly the companies and their board members need jail.

Simple fix to all the illegal material and actions performed on ya platform. ID the people who do it by forcing ID verification at signup.

You want anon wild west esque communication? Cool go to 4chan. Stop allowing the largest social media platforms to have it. All it does is promote criminal activities and puts my kids at risk.

notaustinpowers|2 years ago

There are so many issues when it comes to ID verification to access online services:

- How do we check this information is accurate? It could be a fake ID, photoshopped, or just a friend's ID.

- What system is in place to verify it is correct? As every US state uses different ID systems, would online platforms need 50 different ID systems to verify them?

- What about people who don't have an ID?

- What about other countries with different regulations or just don't have a national ID at all? America, Australia, the UK, Canada, Denmark, Japan, India, etc all don't use national IDs.

- Where is this information stored? If, like you say, Meta is responsible for IDing those posting illegal material to their platform, then Meta will need to keep the ID information on file. What happens if they are hacked? Does that mean that now my name, height, weight, eye color, address, organ donor status, etc are now available to anyone with 15 minutes of free time and an onion browser? I can't imagine any company's legal team would ever allow that information to be stored on company servers.

Their heart (and yours) are in the right place, but this is not the way to do it. This puts everyone at risk of very damaging consequences from one well-executed attack. And will most likely never be able to be implemented properly across the US, let alone worldwide.

rightbyte|2 years ago

I'd rather not show id to visit web pages. It puts my kids at risk.

vdaea|2 years ago

Your kids are at risk because you refuse to do some parenting. Instead of asking for authoritarian, privacy-invasive laws, do some parenting.

cherryteastain|2 years ago

What a silly notion. Criminals use fake/stolen IDs all the time. This'd only serve to make surveillance worse for normal people, while criminals would be undeterred.