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For years, Meta has faced criticism and scrutiny from Congress. CEO Mark Zuckerberg has repeatedly been sent to Congressional hearings to discuss privacy concerns that impact thousands of Americans.
Congress is focused on regulating Meta quickly and they hope to achieve this with a dozen proposed bills targeting Big Tech, some of which could force Meta to change how it handles algorithmic recommendations and collecting user data, as well as its ability to make acquisitions. Although Zuckerberg has attempted to reassure Meta users that it is safe to use, the potential of user data being used by third-party apps and other corporations is quite dangerous.
Throughout the past few years, Meta has been targeted for regulations, and just last week, a federal judge said the Federal Trade Commission could move forward with a lawsuit to break up Meta. Meta argued that the complaint should be dismissed, but this case has the potential to be dragged on for years.
There have also been new concerns regarding Meta’s Oculus virtual reality components. The FTC and several state attorney generals are investigating antitrust concerns. With virtual reality becoming increasingly popular, many are calling for an investigation on whether or not this is safe.
Consequently, privacy concerns are not the only issues that Meta is being investigated for. Congress has also been quite vocal on Meta’s lack of bias control. However, Democrats and Republicans are divided on what the core problem of bias control is. For instance, Republicans accuse Facebook of anti-conservative bias, despite a lack of evidence, while Democrats are concerned that the company does not do enough to protect against hate speech, misinformation, and other problematic content. Although it is difficult to regulate free speech online, it is important to put a stop to mass misinformation and degrading topics.
Do you think Meta needs to be regulated? Let us know down in the comments!
This article was originally published in GREY Journal.
