Republican FTC Commissioner Melissa Holyoak published a statement on Thursday expressing concern with Big Tech facilitating content harmful to children, but also warning that the Biden-Harris FTC could take actions that result in the censorship of Americans’ online speech.
In 2020, during the Trump administration, the FTC issued orders to nine tech companies — Facebook, YouTube, TikTok, WhatsApp, Snap, Discord, Reddit, Twitter, and Amazon — seeking to examine their data practices and how they operate.
Some of the key findings in the FTC report include revelations that “Companies’ deletion practices varied and may not reflect what consumers expect.” That is, while some companies claim to delete data, they don’t actually follow through with it.
“Other federal officials have shown no qualms about directly pressuring social media companies to suppress content online.” Holyoak goes on to list three major concerns: The FTC commissioner explains that while she is “deeply sympathetic” to the report where it “relates to protecting children and teens online or to clearly harmful content,” such as “promoting self-harm,” she is gravely concerned about online censorship.
“How social media companies view and treat users increasingly shapes civic discourse and determines the extent of Americans’ freedoms to participate in the modern public square,” Holyoak said.
“I am concerned that such suggestions and recommendations may further limit free speech online, even where the intent is not directly to suppress free speech,” the FTC commissioner stated in her concurring and dissenting statement published Thursday.
Users might assume that “deletion” means a social media platform has permanently erased their data, but companies have instead been found to “de-identify” data, meaning the data was made anonymous.
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