On Sept. 10, 42 state attorneys general endorsed a plan backed by the U.S. surgeon general to add warning labels to social media platforms. While this plan is well-intentioned, it’s unlikely to make a significant impact. “In general, warning labels by themselves [are] just not effective,” said Oriene Shin, policy counsel at Consumer Reports. Shin explained that warning labels “really need to be coupled with safe design. [They’re] the icing on the cake rather than the end all be all.”
Fast forward to Sept. 16, when a U.S. Court of Appeals heard arguments over whether the federal government’s potential ban of TikTok is lawful. A third of TikTok’s 170 million users in the U.S. are aged 14 or younger. This means that TikTok is gathering data on and influencing the minds of 50-60 million American children. That data (including biometrics) and the propaganda being fed into their newsfeeds, appears to be influenced by the Chinese government…