“If I’ve got some power right now, I’ve got to use it for good,” Klobuchar said in an interview with 5 INVESTIGATES inside her Capitol Hill office late last year.
Klobuchar chairs the subcommittee on Competition Policy, Antitrust and Consumer Rights, which puts her in a unique position to dramatically change how Facebook and other tech companies operate.
“You make enemies when you’re taking on the biggest company.” she said.”
But with rare bipartisan support, she is pushing new rules and regulations that she says would force Facebook to change its algorithms.
The company, which now goes by the name Meta, is accused of designing those complex formulas to amplify content that’s hateful, destructive, or simply not true.
“It pays off to be extreme,” Klobuchar said, adding that she’s seen it play out in social media posts in politics.
“If you see the more polarizing posts more, you start thinking that's all that matters in politics, and you miss some of the stuff in the middle on both sides,” she said.
The founder of Meta, Mark Zuckerberg, strongly disagrees with the accusations that its algorthrims push divisive content higher, calling it “deeply illogical.”
“Advertisers consistently tell us they don’t want their ads next to harmful or angry content,” he said last year.
Zuckerberg’s comments were part of an aggressive campaign launched by Facebook to push back against a former employee and whistleblower who testified before Congress last fall.
Frances Haugen, who also turned...
False sexual or rape allegations can have devastating consequences for the accused, including reputational damage, loss of employment and emotional trauma. In Nigeria, current legislation focuses ...