Blumenthal Chairs Hearing With Snapchat, TikTok & Youtube

[WASHINGTON, D.C.] – Today, U.S. Senator Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), Chair of the Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Subcommittee on Consumer Protection, Product Safety, and Data Security, delivered opening remarks at a hearing titled “Protecting Kids Online: Snapchat, TikTok, and YouTube.” Witnesses from the three companies appeared at the hearing, with TikTok and Snap appearing before Congress for the first time. The hearing was the fourth in a series of bipartisan hearings spearheaded by Blumenthal and Ranking Member U.S. Senator Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) to inform legislation and prompt action by social media companies to address harms and dangers faced by children online.

“Our hearing with the Facebook whistleblower, Frances Haugen, was a searing indictment along with her documents of a powerful, gigantic corporation that put profits ahead of people — especially our children,” Blumenthal said. “We’re hearing the same stories and reports of the same harms about the tech platforms that are represented here today. I’ve heard from countless parents and medical professionals in Connecticut and elsewhere around the country about the same phenomenon on Snapchat, YouTube, and TikTok. In effect, that business model is the same – more eyeballs means more dollars. Everything that you do is to add users, especially kids, and keep them on your apps for longer.”

Blumenthal emphasized the dangers of algorithms in driving extreme content to children, recounting stories shared by Connecticut constituents, including Nora from Westport “who allowed her 11 year old daughter, Avery, on TikTok because she thought it was ‘just girls dancing.’ Avery wanted to exercise more with the shutdown of school and sports, so like most people, she went online. Nora wrote about the rabbit hole that TikTok and YouTube’s algorithms pulled her daughter into. She began to see ever more extreme videos about weight loss. Avery started exercising compulsively and ate only one meal a day. Her body weight dropped dangerously low and she was diagnosed with anorexia. Avery is now luckily in treatment, but the financial cost of care is an extreme burden and her education has suffered.”

Blumenthal’s office created TikTok and YouTube accounts as teenagers after hearing from other parents who had the same experience. On YouTube, “Like Avery, we watched a few videos about extreme dieting and eating disorders. They were easy to find. YouTube’s recommendation algorithm began to promote extreme dieting and eating disorder videos each time we opened the app,” Blumenthal said. “We also received these recommendations each time we watched other videos. It’s mostly eating disorder content. There was no way out of this rabbit hole.”

Blumenthal stressed that Big Tech must do better, saying: “Big Tech cannot say to parents, ‘You must be the gatekeepers. You must be social media copilots, you must be the app police.’ Because parents should not have to bear that burden alone. We need stronger rules to protect children online, real transparency, real accountability. I want a market where the competition is to protect children, not to exploit them. Not a race to the bottom, but competition for the top.”

Blumenthal concluded his opening remarks with Big Tech’s comparison to Big Tobacco, emphasizing a key difference: “Big Tech is not irredeemably bad, like Big Tobacco. Big Tobacco and the tobacco products when used by the customer as the way the manufacturer intended can actually kill the customer. As Ms. Haugen said, ‘Our goal is not to burn Facebook to the ground, it’s to bring out the best to improve and impose accountability. As she said, we can have social media we enjoy that connects us without tearing apart our democracy, putting our children in danger, and sowing ethnic violence around the world. We can do better.’ And I agree.”

Video of Blumenthal’s opening remarks can be found here.

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