His opening testimony emphasizes that “the existing body of scientific work has not shown a causal link between using social media and young people having worse mental health outcomes.” (Which isn’t necessarily wrong, partly because causal links are very hard to prove — the overall body of research is complicated and seems to suggest social media has a variety of possible effects.)
Citron would like you to know he’s a gamer — “games have always brought us together, and Discord makes that happen today.” He acknowledges that more than 60 percent of active users are between the ages of 13 and 24, so child safety takes on particular relevance here. He’s also trying to distinguish himself from the rest of the “Big Tech” crowd, highlighting Discord’s relatively small size and lack of mega-acquisitions.
Graham is pledging to push through a variety of online regulation bills, including the EARN IT Act that’s been stalled in Congress for several years. He’s putting particular attention on rolling back Section 230, which protects tech companies from liability for third-party content.
Durbin has passed things off to Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC), who’s thanking the families who have brought pictures of their children. Graham and Durbin are mostly hitting the same beats — emphasizing the bipartisan agreement here — but Graham is going a little further, telling Mark Zuckerberg that “you have blood on your hands.” The line got applause from the crowd.
Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL) has just kicked off the event, and now we’re hearing from parents and children who were targeted by child predators on platforms like Facebook.
In light of Spec Ops: The Line getting yanked from online storefronts over music licensing issues, it’s a good time to re-read a 2019 piece from GamesIndustry.biz on why this problem seems so common. Bottom line: games spent a long time being considered more ephemeral than other media like movies, and faced with the convoluted structure of music copyright, many studios negotiated deals to match.
[GamesIndustry.biz]
