Taking advantage of what he calls “a Big Tobacco moment,” Sen. Richard Blumenthal is going after Facebook chief executive Mark Zuckerberg in his social media backyard.
After declaring that it was a national “moment of reckoning” for Facebook because of the company’s unwillingness to address the damage being caused to young people, Blumenthal went after Zuckerberg on Twitter Wednesday. He also told CNN he plans to ask the Facebook CEO to testify before his committee.
“Zuckerberg apparently back from sailing realizes he’s in a Big Tobacco moment— damning documents from his own researchers showing destructive harms he tried to hide,’' Blumenthal tweeted, noting the Facebook CEO’s decision to release video of a recent sailing adventure.
A hearing co-chaired by Blumenthal Tuesday featured former Facebook employee Frances Haugen, who has leaked thousands of internal company documents that show that Facebook knew about the damage of its products inflict on adolescent mental health.
“No apologies, no acknowledgement, no action — nothing to see here. An energized bipartisan coalition in Congress, spurred by an outraged public, finding it laughably unacceptable,’' Blumenthal tweeted Wednesday morning.
On Tuesday, Zuckerberg defended his company in a Facebook post — and didn’t mention Blumenthal.
“I’m sure many of you have found the recent coverage hard to read because it just doesn’t reflect the company we know. We care deeply about issues like safety, well-being and mental health. It’s difficult to see coverage that misrepresents our work and our motives. At the most basic level, I think most of us just don’t recognize the false picture of the company that is being painted,’' Zuckerberg wrote.
“The argument that we deliberately push content that makes people angry for profit is deeply illogical. We make money from ads, and advertisers consistently tell us they don’t want their ads next to harmful or angry content. And I don’t know any tech company that sets out to build products that make people angry or depressed.”
Zuckerberg said he was “committed to doing more research ourselves and making more research publicly available.”
An Instagram post by Zuckerberg earlier this week focused on a recent sailing trip with his wife.
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