Opposition to Facebook’s plans gained momentum this month when The Journal published articles based on leaked internal documents that showed Facebook knew about many of the harms it was causing. On Thursday, Facebook’s global head of safety, Antigone Davis, is scheduled to testify at a Senate Commerce subcommittee hearing titled “Protecting Kids Online: Facebook, Instagram and Mental Health Harms.”Simply pausing Instagram Kids was insufficient, said lawmakers, including Senator Richard Blumenthal, Democrat of Connecticut and the chairman of the subcommittee holding Thursday’s hearing. “Time and time again, Facebook has demonstrated the failures of self-regulation, and we know that Congress must step in,” they said. “At some point, we have to ask whether Facebook is simply too big to police their own products and services,” Mr. Mik said. “Because unless and until they can provide the service they promise, they are not fit to be trusted with our kids — until then, neither Instagram nor Instagram for kids should be considered a good idea.”

Source: New York Times September 27, 2021 12:40 UTC