Sometimes its effects seem unstoppable.
This is the third election cycle in the US (2016, 2020, 2024) where social media is going to play a huge role in elections. America has not yet grasped the fact that our democracy is becoming increasingly precarious, more polarized, more hateful, and less able to build consensus. We saw with the 2020 election that people no longer even accept that elections are real. It is important that we start implementing the transparency and accountability that is required for these platforms that control the information ecosystem that has such an enormous impact on our election cycles.
Why do you think it has been so difficult to regulate social media and the harm it can cause?
They’re doing it all over the world. The UK has enacted the Internet Security Act. The EU has enacted the Digital Services Act. Canada has enacted Bill C-63, and I’m going to testify in Ottawa at some point on that. In the United States, we’ve seen social media companies deploy their defenses more aggressively than anywhere else in the world. They’re spending tens of millions of dollars lobbying Congress, supporting candidates, trying to prevent the inevitable from happening.
Something has to work, right?
Ironically, I think what will most likely end up moving lawmakers are parents, and in particular parents who are concerned about the impact of social media platforms on their children’s mental health. And that’s the thing about social media: it affects everything. CCDH looks at the effects of social media, deregulation on our ability to address the climate crisis, on sexual and reproductive rights, on public health and vaccines during the pandemic, on identity-based hate, and on children. It’s a children’s issue; it’s actually an irreproachable case for change.
My wife and I are having our first child soon. I understand what you would do to protect your children from harm. I think when there are platforms that harm our children on such a scale, it’s inevitable that change will happen.
The optimist in me hopes you are right. The next generation should inherit a better world, but there are many factors preventing that from happening.
You know, one of the things that really scares me is that last year we did a survey that showed that for the first time in history, 14- to 17-year-olds — the first generation to be raised on algorithmically sorted short-form video platforms — are the most conspiracy-minded generation and age group in the entire United States.
Oh, wow.
Older people are slightly more likely to believe conspiracy theories, but the likelihood decreases the younger you are, and suddenly, between the ages of 14 and 17, boom, the highest of all. We did this by testing nine conspiracy theories: transphobic conspiracy theories, climate change denial conspiracy theories, racist conspiracy theories, anti-Semitic conspiracy theories, and deep state conspiracy theories. And in every single one of them, young people were more likely to believe them. And it’s because we’ve created an information ecosystem for them that is fundamentally chaotic.
And this is becoming more and more chaotic.
Look, the way tyrants retain power is not just by lying to people, but by making them unable to tell what the truth is. And that creates apathy. Apathy is the tool of the tyrant. It was that way with the Soviet Union. It was that way with Afghanistan. It’s no secret that the CCDH is made up of high-ranking people who come from places where we’ve seen this kind of destruction of the information ecosystem that leads to tyrannical rule. So, yes, there is this awareness that things could get very bad very quickly. And you’re right in saying that we care about our children and we want to make our world better for them.
