Senator Bennet’s Size-Based Regulation is an Incomplete Solution for Social Media Transparency, Says ITIF

WASHINGTON—Following the announcement of Sen. Michael Bennet’s (D-CO) forthcoming bill to establish a new regulator for large tech platforms, the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation (ITIF), the leading think tank for science and technology policy, issued the following statement from Senior Policy Analyst Ashley Johnson:

Regulation that targets “Big Tech” is a misguided approach to increasing the transparency of social media companies. Size-based regulation ignores that the social media landscape is made up of many companies with various user bases, not just the largest and most popular platforms. This landscape is also constantly shifting as new and innovative platforms attract users and gain market share. Transparency is equally important for a smaller or emerging social media platform as it is for a larger, established platform like Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube.

Increasing transparency in social media would help increase accountability for and public trust in platforms’ content moderation decisions. It would also allow for greater research into forms of harmful content such as misinformation and disinformation that spread easily online. But creating a new regulator exclusively focused on the largest platforms ignores the need for greater transparency across the board.