🚨 BREAKING: this morning activists sealed off London Facebook’s HQ, protesting its profiting from hate speech in India ahead of the general elections starting Friday

Energy and Commerce Committee Gus Bilirakis Jan Schakowsky CathyMcMorrisRodgers Rep. Frank Pallone David Brody Maureen Ohlhausen Ava Smithing of Young People's Alliance shares her personal story of online harms and how a national privacy standard would have helped.

"None of this would have happened to me if I had the option to opt-out of algorithms that used my data to target me," Ava Smithing of the Young People's Alliance's tells lawmakers, regarding the way social media platforms used her data to recommend content promoting disordered eating.

Young People's Alliance Instagram tracked Ava’s behavior across apps and used it to push her images and videos that heightened her insecurities and promoted harmful behavior. We can stop this by banning targeted ads to minors.

Ava Smithing of Young People's Alliance tells members of Congress how social media companies regularly filtered harmful eating disorder content to her as a teenage girl, storing her data and showing this content to her “on a loop.”

Thank you Gus Bilirakis and his subcommittee for their work to mitigate the harms to young people online. Eager to keep working to pass these bills.

People > profit

It’s the privilege of our lives to represent our people

Big Tech uses every method possible to keep users addicted to being online so they can pocket huge profits while our kids pay the price. It’s long past time the Congress steps up and passes comprehensive data and privacy legislation to protect children online.

'Meta, which owns Instagram, did not respond to a request for comment'

Hey! We Know Ava! Thank you Rep. McMorris Rodgers for your work to solve the pressing issues created by big tech.

Did big tech interfere with your stream and cut Ava off? Here is the full ending of her testimony

We need action, not words. Help keep our kids safe on social media—tell Congress to pass #KOSA and #COPPA on our Day of Action. Sign the Petition: p2a.co/R5fTtVT?p2asou…

Part of this record $7.6 million in lobbying dollars went towards opposing legislation to protect kids and teens online, such as the Kids Online Safety Act #KOSA. theverge.com/2024/4/29/2414…

Thank you, Young People’s Alliance, for the Legislative Champion Award. Your leadership proves that the future is bright and worth fighting for.

Pete Skomoroch Senator Scott Wiener This seems like willful misrepresentation. There are 27 supporters listed on the bill’s office website. Encode Justice is one of them. The bill was cosponsored by CAIS action fund. (Center for AI Safety)

Pete Skomoroch Senator Scott Wiener Wow. This is bullshit. Encode is not (at least currently) focused on “social media marketing”, and Ms. Revanur has been working on AI policy for four years; she is a bright Stanford undergrad and a serious player (and just one of many many advisors on the bill). If you have

s/o to everyone in tech policy today

Big day today as the Senate will advance the Kids Online Safety Act!! Ava Smithing says it best: “The Senate was able to do their part and we are grateful. All eyes will be on House leadership to make sure they do theirs as well.” Oma Seddiq Young People's Alliance news.bgov.com/bloomberg-gove…

This is a really substantial and important decision, finally reading 230 as it was intended--and not extending immunity to algorithmically promoted content.