YouTube, Snapchat, and TikTok, claim to protect kids online in Congressional Hearings

• Snapchat, TikTok, and Youtube faced Congressional Hearings for allegedly affecting the mental health of kids

• Lawmakers expressed concerns about TikTok’s data collection and storage, worrying about the Chinese parent company

Executives of popular social media platforms TikTok, Snapchat, and YouTube faced a barrage of accusations on Tuesday from U.S. lawmakers, who expressed concerns that the platforms can harm children and teenagers.

All three companies presented to the Senate Commerce Committee. The hearing was to share internal research on how their products affect kids.

During the hearing, convened by Senator Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), lawmakers drilled the companies into how kids’ data is protected online, how features such as autoplay and ‘likes’ affect teenagers’ experiences.

The issue has come to the forefront in the past several weeks: thousands of pages of Facebook’s internal documents have been revealed by a whistleblower.

Instagram under fire

Facebook has been under pressure for several weeks for how its sites, particularly Instagram, negatively affect teenagers’ mental health after the WSJ reported on internal research conducted by the social media giant.

Last month, Facebook executive Antigone Davis testified in front of Congress, facing accusations from senators that the company buried internal research about how its products may harm children.

When Facebook whistleblower Frances Haugen testified before the subcommittee this month, lawmakers said her disclosures could mark a turning point in regulating the tech giants.

Snapchat and TikTok’s first Congressional hearing

Snap Inc and short video platform TikTok have faced Congress for the first time on Tuesday and faced far less scrutiny, including how they affect kids, despite having huge users.

While TikTok said it has more than 1 billion monthly users and did not disclose the users by age group, Snapchat said it has 500 million monthly active users and says more than 80% of its U.S. users are over 18.

The companies defended their approach to protecting kids online and broadly expressed support for legislation to boost protections for kids online.

Although all senators expressed frustration that companies wouldn’t commit to supporting specific proposals they have proposed, the executives argued that they are continually building features to safeguard young users better.

Safeguarding the kids

Snapchat, TikTok, and Youtube have faced some public backlash for how they treat kids online.

In 2019, YouTube’s parent Google agreed to pay $170 million to settle allegations that it illegally collected data about children younger than 13 who watched toy videos and television shows on the platform.

Earlier this year, Snapchat and TikTok faced pressure to stop illegal drug sales and connections on their platforms, as overdose deaths have soared. 

Several senators on Tuesday also brought up teens’ mental health and eating disorders. The companies all said that any material encouraging eating disorders violate their content. They work to keep it off their sites and instead point users to expert sources on the issues.

Concerns around TikTok

Lawmakers spent a significant amount of time grilling TikTok on its ownership after Senators brought up concerns about data privacy pointing towards the social media platform’s parent company, Beijing-based ByteDance.

The company said it had not provided any information to the Chinese government and has taken steps to safeguard U.S. data.

Although the Senators expressed concerns about TikTok’s data collection, including audio and a user’s location, and the potential for the Chinese government to gain access to the information, the company testified that it stores U.S. user data locally, with backups in Singapore.

Former President Donald Trumpsought to bar TikTok from U.S. app stores, saying it collected data from American users that the Chinese government can easily obtain and posed a threat to U.S. national security. President Joe Biden revoked Trump’s plan. However, he is seeking a broader review of various foreign-controlled apps.

Picture Credit: CNN