Bad V Worse

Several social media tech execs including Mark Zuckerberg went to Washington for their annual flogging today. The issue this time around is child safety, or more directly, “Big Tech and the online child sexual exploitation crisis.” Longtime readers will note that I’ve never shied away from criticizing the social platforms and their make-believe attempts at self regulation on issues from children to privacy to democracy. I’ve criticized these platforms here, I criticized them in my book, I spent years writing a blog on the damage technology is doing to society. So I’m glad to see pressure on the platforms to be safer, especially for kids. It was good to see Zuckerberg apologize to the families who have been harmed by Meta’s lax oversight. I hope Congress surprises us and gets a decent law passed. But it’s just a compete farce to watch some of these Congressional clowns using the hearing to make themselves go viral on the very same platforms they’re attacking—and the ones they use to spread the lies, disinformation, and personal attacks that are destroying the fabric of our country. It’s nauseating to listen to some of these dysfunctional blowhards, enablers, insurrection supporters, and democracy sellouts who can barely keep the nation’s lights on much less pass legislation spending the day trolling the heads of the social networks they’ve utterly failed to regulate.

+ Families and victims were a massive force in today’s hearing. They deserve a serious Congress. We all do.