Bilirakis Says Social Media Platforms Can’t Be Trusted to Do the Right Thing

Please see the statement below from Congressman Gus Bilirakis regarding Facebook's announcement today that it will pause development of its Instagram for Kids platform.

"The Big Tech industry was on board with knowingly hurting our children until they were caught red-handed by a whistleblower. It is clear we cannot trust Big Tech to do the right thing. Here is a timeline of events: When Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg appeared before our committee this March, I expressed my serious concerns about his ill-conceived plans to create an Instagram platform for users under the age of 13. Armed with survey data from constituents, I let Zuckerberg know that parents and citizens in our district did not trust the industry to get it right when it came to protecting kids online. My Republican E&C colleagues and I alsospearheaded an oversight letter requesting internal studies about the platform's research on the impact of its products on kids' mental health. When whistleblowers revealed internal studies showing the company knew its products were dangerous for teens and failed to do anything about it, I once again made it clear in recent hearings and markups that this deceitful behavior is unacceptable and will not be tolerated. As a result of this relentless pressure, the company is now voluntarily agreeing to stop development of its new Instagram for Kids platform. Despite this, we know that Big Tech is not an effective self-regulator which is why we must take action to ensure social media companies do the right thing," said Congressman Gus Bilirakis.