WASHINGTON — Sen. John Curtis, R-Utah, is pushing for changes to how social media companies utilize data to make their platforms more addictive as several lawmakers look for ways to protect children from online harm.
Curtis pressed psychology and technology experts on the dangers of social media during a Senate hearing this week, escalating his efforts to crack down on addictive algorithms employed by social media companies to keep children online for longer periods of time. In a rapid-fire line of questioning, Curtis asked whether those algorithms are designed to be addictive, whether companies track user behaviors to adjust those algorithms, and whether current social media business models are designed to prioritize profit over well-being.
Each of the questions were answered with a unanimous “yes.”
“I’ve actually compared this to the tobacco hearings, where executives were brought up and they had data, they had research that it was harmful, and tried to tell us it was,” Curtis said in his remarks on Thursday. “And I actually believe in a hearing not too many years from now, we’ll have a similar hearing with social media companies.”
Expert witnesses who testified in the hearing, which sought to focus on how technology can affect children and teens’ well-being, told senators that companies document potential harms to users — but have been accused of suppressing that data.
The hearing focused mostly on children’s use of technology and social media, but Curtis broadened the conversation to include adults as he raised concerns about the impact on society’s mental health at large. Witnesses testified that depression rates in young adults have doubled in recent years, likely due to having technology introduced to them while they were children.
Curtis has long called for reforms to the social media landscape, even going so far as to introduce a bill late last year proposing updates to Section 230 to no longer offer protections for tech companies if it can be proved that the platforms knowingly used an algorithm to amplify content responsible for causing harm. The change would instead mandate that companies “own” the content, which would allow individuals to sue them directly.
In practice, the bill would establish requirements for social media platforms to “design, train, test, deploy, operate, and maintain their recommendation-based algorithm to prevent foreseeable bodily injury or death.” It would also provide a “clear civil right of action” to take legal action.
The legislation would still carve out protections for free speech by barring enforcement “based on viewpoint or expression.” It would also allow states to implement similar laws so long as they provide equal or stronger user protections.
Curtis has repeatedly compared the current online landscape to Senate hearings in the 1990s, during which tobacco companies testified that nicotine was not an addictive substance and that there were no harmful effects of tobacco — which later proved to be false. Curtis used that same comparison during this week’s hearing.
Lawmakers in both parties have pushed for months to implement increased protections for children online, especially after reports last year that Meta, one of the largest media companies in the world, knowingly suppressed research on the harms of social platforms for children that could be used to advance policies protecting them from danger.
Senators have pushed to pass the Kids Online Safety Act that would require platforms to establish safeguards protecting users under the age of 17. While the bill carves out some exceptions, it would apply to video games, online messaging sites, video streaming services and other online platforms.
KOSA was initially introduced in 2022 in response to a leaked report showing the negative effect of sites such as Facebook and Instagram on teens’ mental health. The bill passed the Senate in a 91-3 vote last year, but it failed to make it to the House for consideration.