What We Have Here...Is Another Congressional Hearing on Social Media
Or what it should be called-- "Einstein's Definition of Insanity"
Exciting news, folks! Brace yourselves for another episode of the social media saga, set to unfold in the hallowed halls of the Senate. This time, the spotlight is on Senate Judiciary Committee heavyweights Dick Durbin and Lindsey Graham, orchestrating a symphony of inquiries into the lapses of major social media giants in safeguarding our children online.
"Big Tech’s failure to police itself at the expense of our kids cannot go unanswered,” said Durbin and Graham in a joint statement. "Hearing from the CEOs of some of the world’s largest social media companies will help inform the Committee’s efforts to address the crisis of online child sexual exploitation.”
Sadly, we’ve all seen this movie before. Hell, I was in it 1,588 days ago. To borrow a movie analogy, “What we have here is a failure to communicate”. Another episode of political theatre where there will be accusations, denials, and chastisements. Zuck the doe-eyed sociopath blissfully ignorant of any major problems will testify that Meta takes great care to prevent online abuse, maybe announce new Terms of Service, and that he’s working to improve things, yada yada yada—-or some similar line of bullshit we’ve heard over that last umpteen years. And the TikTok guy will swear up and down that the Chinese government has absolutely nothing to do with the platform.
Zuckerberg and TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew are expected to voluntarily testify at the December 6 hearing, but Elon Musk essentially told the committee to go pound sand. As much as I am appalled at his behavior and what he’s done to run Twitter into the ground, I have to at least give him kudos for not participating in another charade.
Hey Dick and Lindsey, I’ve got some sobering news for you guys. No matter how many times you drag these soulless charlatans in, no matter how polite and contrite they seem, their pledges to clean up their platforms are worthless. THEY WILL NOT DO THE RIGHT THING UNTIL YOU MAKE THEM. Without consequences, the insanity continues and society, not just children, will continue to suffer.
Remember my testimony in 2019? How about Frances Haugen in 2021? Fellas, as I’ve preached ad nauseam, the only way to fix this issue that plagues our country is to amend Section 230 by passing SAFE TECH. The only thing these “titans” understand are the consequences of liability. If he’s truly interested in pursuing bipartisan legislation, Chuck Schumer needs to put up or shut up. Enough of these useless, repetitive hearings. DO SOMETHING!