Lawmakers Introduce Bill Demanding Facebook Be More Transparent About Data Practices

There aren’t many issues that unite both sides of the political aisle, but criticizing Facebook is one of them. This week, a bipartisan group of senators introduced a bill called the Platform Accountability and Transparency Act that would require companies like Facebook to submit information about its algorithms and content moderation to an independent body for review. According to the lawmakers, this legislation could bring a much-needed level of transparency to how social media platforms may be affecting our lives.

“For too long, social media companies have said: ‘just trust us,’ while putting their profits ahead of consumers’ safety, privacy, and wellbeing. It’s time to stop admiring the problem and instead start holding these platforms accountable for the dangerous lack of transparency behind their algorithms,” said Senator Amy Klobuchar, one of the bill’s co-sponsors. “Our bipartisan legislation will do just that, ensuring independent researchers can access platform data and understand the type of information these companies are collecting on their users.”

With such broad bipartisan support, it’s very likely that this bill will be signed into law. Meanwhile, some experts have already praised it as a step forward in curtailing the power of social media giants. While there is still a ways to go, it seems like this could represent a major privacy win for Facebook users in the near future.




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