Breaking Down Tech-Funded Opposition to Child Safety Laws
When it comes to child safety, companies like Meta and TikTok have lost almost all of their credibility, dodging questions from lawmakers and while facing federal agency crackdowns and a growing flood of product liability lawsuits. As the walls close in, Big Tech has two options: it can institute substantive changes to make platforms safe for children, or it can refuse to change and hope its PR efforts can prevent the public from abandoning services that continue to be unsafe. So far, the industry has picked the latter.
 
This week, an Atlantic article by Zach Rausch, Jonathan Haidt, and Lennon Torres argued that some tech-funded third party groups are still working to kill children’s online safety laws by claiming they would harm LGBTQ youth, even though organizations like the Human Rights Campaign and GLAAD have withdrawn their initial opposition to the bill after regulators made changes to address previous concerns. The article cites a tech funding database compiled by CfA's Tech Transparency Project, which can be used to identify advocacy organizations that are bankrolled by companies like Meta, Google, Amazon, and Apple. While Big Tech lobbyists use teens as a shield against regulation, the platforms themselves have become saturated with hate speech against the LGBTQ community and its allies—making it difficult to believe that the industry’s current self-governance model is the best way to protect marginalized groups.