Story at a glance
- Roger McNamee, a major early investor in Facebook, discussed major problems plaguing social media companies during a tech conference this week.
- McNamee believed Facebook violated six federal laws and that the company should be held responsible.
- McNamee suggested that tech companies be more heavily regulated.
A major Facebook investor criticized the social media company for its business practices and thinks it should be held accountable for violating federal law.
Roger McNamee, a founding partner of Elevation Partners and an early investor in Facebook, spoke at Web Summit, a three-day tech conference taking place in Portugal. McNamee discussed many problems plaguing social media companies and specifically talked about the hot issues Facebook is currently facing.
McNamee said it appears that Facebook has violated at least three laws that have felony penalties, according to information presented by Frances Haugen, whistleblower and former Facebook product manager. McNamee added that he personally believes the company violated up to six laws.
He went on to say that, “if we have a rule of law in the United States, we need to enforce it.”
America is changing faster than ever! Add Changing America to your Facebook or Twitter feed to stay on top of the news.
Though Facebook has not formally received any charges, the company is facing an ongoing lawsuit by the federal government. The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) seeks to force Facebook to restructure or sell off its assets, Instagram and WhatsApp, to break up what the FTC views as a monopoly over personal social networking in the United States.
Facebook is also still enduring the aftermath of internal documents being leaked by Haugen, which expose how the company prioritized low-quality content that incited toxicity and misinformation. The documents also reiterated Haugen’s testimony on Capitol Hill last month, where she claimed Facebook allowed misinformation to spread on its site ahead of the 2020 election and that it was not doing enough to counter hate speech.
Many of these issues, McNamee argued, are due to the fact that Facebook constructed a social media network, which consists of 3 billion people, with no safety net in place. He argued that Facebook’s business model incentivizes extreme content, which ends up amplifying things like white supremacy and anti-vaccination content, with no rules to regulate itself.
Facebook isn’t the only culprit though, with McNamee describing the tech industry as, “core to the economy but in desperate need of regulations that protect the people affected by the product.”
He also suggested a governing body similar to the Food and Drug Administration is needed to effectively regulate the tech industry.
READ MORE STORIES FROM CHANGING AMERICA
CHEFS DECLARE WAR ON A TRENDY FRUIT BECAUSE OF ITS ENORMOUS CARBON FOOTPRINT
FACEBOOK DISCOVERS THERE’S ALREADY A COMPANY NAMED META
ISRAELI MINISTER OUTRAGED WHEN HER WHEELCHAIR IS DENIED ENTRY TO COP26
WAR ERUPTS OVER NEW MARVEL BLOCKBUSTER’S GAY SUPERHERO
BIDEN ADMINISTRATION CONSIDERING GIVING $450,000 PER PERSON TO IMMIGRANTS SEPARATED AT THE BORDER
changing america copyright.
