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It’s been a few weeks since Don Lemon and I ran a Substack Live. We reassembled today to break down an important development.
Meta has agreed to a multi-billion-dollar settlement and major changes to how children interact with its platforms. I brought my tech background to this conversation, and Don Lemon brought his skeptical, pro-First Amendment journalist lens. What resulted was an excellent, nuanced discussion about what this settlement means.
I came with a big-picture take on Meta's settlement. My take was that if your platforms are so toxic that they're detrimental to the health of kids, then you need a top-down re-engineering of your algorithm and incentive structures. I called for federal regulation, transparency, and algorithm changes.
Don was justifiably more skeptical of Meta’s changes to how we interact with its platforms. He also broached “Big Brother” concerns over federal regulation, and wondered whether the responsibility should be more on parents.
We landed somewhere in the middle.
We both agreed, though, that federal regulation of social media companies under the Trump Administration would pose some pretty significant risks. I called for the future Democratic majority post-2028 to handle this, but to bring in real technologists that understand how these algorithms work.
This ended up being a surprisingly nuanced conversation about the social media landscape. I think you’ll enjoy it!
You can watch our full conversation above or check it out on YouTube below. Make sure to subscribe to Don's and my channel while you’re there. I’ve just started creating long-form video content there. Appreciate you all!
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