Florida’s Attorney General Ashley Moody (R) is voicing her support for hearings related to the U.S. Senate investigating numerous social media companies. Various GOP officials have criticized social media companies and censorship in recent years, but Moody is responding to the recent hearing conducted on Frances Haugen, the former Facebook employee that became a whistleblower, by the Senate Commerce Subcommittee on Consumer Protection.
Moody’s office provided a statement, citing that as a parent, she doesn’t want social media companies like Facebook “targeting” her son.
In speaking to lawmakers this week, Frances Haugen commented that Facebook is a “national security issue,” expressing that the social media site damages U.S. security interests and adding that “the choices being made inside of Facebook are disastrous for our children, for our public safety, for our privacy, and for our democracy.” Detailing that she “saw Facebook repeatedly encounter conflicts between its own profits and our safety,” she lamented that “Facebook consistently resolved these conflicts in favor of its own profits.”
In response, Attorney General Moody provided a statement on the hearing, sharing that “as a mother of a middle schooler, I don’t want social media companies targeting my son – enticing him to spend more time online; and, as Attorney General, I have serious concerns about the tactics and strategies Facebook is using to increase the length of time children and adolescents spend engaging with the platform.”
“Inquiries like these Congressional hearings should provide the public with a better understanding of how and why our youth are being targeted by Big Tech.”
In addition to sharing her support for the hearings, the Attorney General also signed a National Association of Attorneys General letter that includes the signatures of 51 other AGs, supporting a Facebook probe.
