Last week, a former Facebook employee testified before Congress about how that company’s algorithms and business practices were harming youth mental health and our democracy. This testimony was a call to action.
At the Attorney General’s Office, we are already taking action, leading the antitrust lawsuit against Google, serving on the leadership team for the case against Facebook, and leading a 32 state coalition to call for the updating of the antitrust laws. In the wake of the outrage expressed at last week’s hearing, we are taking additional action as well.
As I explained
in a letter to Congress, Congress must now enact much-needed legislation to protect our kids, our democracy, privacy, and competition. And, as I explained yesterday in an
op-ed in the Denver Post, our office is not waiting for Congress to act and is taking action here in Colorado on a number of important fronts.
The harm to our kids' mental health and actions that threaten their well being call for vigilance by Internet platform companies, parents, and the government. We need more independent research, better controls, and more transparency on how algorithms can, for example, direct those searching for information on weight loss to videos about self-harm. An empowered federal regulatory agency could do just that.
The threats to our democracy are formidable—and scary. It is not only that algorithms are directing people to more extreme content and that the January 6th attack was enabled by organizing on Facebook; it’s also that advertising on Internet platforms is free from any transparency requirements.
As for the threats to consumer privacy, our office is actively working to protect Coloradans. With the enactment of our nation’s third data privacy law, Colorado is set to enable consumers to learn how their personal information is being used by Internet companies that collect it, allowing them to make choices about how their data is used and to correct inaccuracies.
My kids are growing up in this online world. Protecting them, our democracy, our privacy, and competition will remain top priorities of mine. Thanks for helping me do this important work.
