Photos: Free Press
WASHINGTON — On Thursday, Free Press Action Co-CEO Jessica J. González urged Congress to mitigate the harms resulting from social-media targeting of users based on their private demographic and behavioral data.
In opening remarks during the U.S. Senate Commerce Committee hearing on “Disrupting Dangerous Algorithms,” González outlined a set of regulatory guidelines that center civil and human rights and protect democratic principles.
“Years of research, investigative journalism, activism and whistleblower revelations have illuminated that the companies collecting that data have little to no accountability to the American people,” González writes in her submitted testimony. “They haven’t even attempted to redress the harms caused by their business models, which promote content to maximize engagement and profit handsomely from amplifying conspiracy theories and bigotry.”
Earlier this week, Free Press Action and 35 allies in the Disinfo Defense League (DDL) released a legislative platform describing steps Congress should take to adopt comprehensive digital-privacy legislation that holds social-media companies accountable for spreading disinformation that harms Black and Brown people. González’s testimony draws from the platform put forward by the network of civil-rights, racial-equity and digital-justice groups.
González’s written testimony can be found here in full.
