The UK’s Online Safety Bill, which aims to regulate the internet, has been amended to remove controversial but important measures.
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Days after Congress passed a bipartisan spending bill banning TikTok from government devices, lawmakers and advocates are considering further regulation of social media companies in the new year. said.
Owned by Chinese company ByteDance, video-sharing app TikTok is visited by more than one billion users each month. Congressman and his FBI Director Christopher Wray expressed concern that TikTok’s ownership structure could put US user data at risk. This is because companies based in China are required by law to hand over user information when requested by the government.
TikTok has repeatedly said its U.S. user data is not based in China, but those assurances did little to allay concerns.
Wisconsin Republican Rep. Mike Gallagher compared TikTok to “digital fentanyl” on Sunday and said on NBC’s “Meet the Press” that he thinks the app’s ban should be expanded nationwide.
“It’s highly addictive and destructive,” he said. I see the
Facebook Whistleblower Frances Haugen said on Sunday that social media platforms such as TikTok, Twitter and YouTube operate using similar algorithms, so regulators should, as a first step, look at how they work. He said there is a need to promote greater transparency about
Hogen said he thinks most people don’t realize how far behind the US is when it comes to regulating social media.
“It’s like being back in 1965. We still don’t have seatbelt laws,” she said on NBC’s “Meet the Press.”
Congress failed to pass many of the most aggressive bills targeting tech in 2022, These include antitrust laws requiring app stores developed by Apple and Google to offer more payment options to developers, and measures requiring new guardrails to protect children online. .Congress has made more headway this year than in the past A Compromise on National Privacy Standardsbut there remains only a patchwork of state laws that determine how consumer data is protected.
Senator Amy Klobuchar (D-Minnesota) said there was bipartisan support for many of these bills, with many on the Senate floor. But she said the tech lobby is so powerful that a bill with “strong bipartisan support” could collapse “within 24 hours.”
Klobuchar said on Sunday that things will change for social media companies only when Americans decide enough is enough.
“We’re lagging behind,” she told NBC’s “Meet the Press.” Let it be our resolution.”
— CNBC’s Lauren Feiner contributed to this report
