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Hey there --
There has been a lot of news about Big Tech companies recently, and spoiler: It’s mostly very bad.
At Accountable Tech, we keep up-to-date on what changes social media companies make and how those changes impact people. More often than not, we see companies make choices that don’t serve the public good and instead fuel their growth and profits. Here’s some of the latest:
- Meta announced it would make people pay for a verified subscription service [1]. For $11.99 a month on the web and $14.99 on iOS, people can get a blue verification badge, after submitting a government ID. Meta Verified is similar to Twitter Blue. What were once free-to-use social media platforms are now moving towards paying for authentication, verification, and reach.
- TikTok will set a time limit of an hour for users under 18 [2]. While this is a step in the right direction – introducing friction – users can easily change the settings within the app. Companies like TikTok, YouTube, and Instagram created their business models on getting kids addicted to the platforms and increasing their screen time to sell them ads. Adding a time limit after getting users addicted isn’t accountability.
- Elon Musk fires more workers as the Twitter app continues to see frequent outages [3]. Twitter’s team of 7,500 employees has fewer than 2,000 employees now, and the newest round of cuts included engineers responsible for keeping the site online. While hundreds of advertisers have pulled their marketing dollars from Twitter, Musk has rolled back long standing content guardrails on the platform and appears undeterred by lost ad revenue.
Friend, we're in for a big year ahead as we take on Big Tech . There’s so much at stake, and we need support fighting back against some of the most erratic billionaires in the world. Taking on Big Tech takes staff time and funds to create coalition websites, compelling videos, social media graphics, and other campaign resources to build on our momentum. Chip in now to help us expand our campaign resources and pass new legislation to protect young people online. [[link removed]]
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Just this week we supported young people who testified in the Maryland and Minnesota legislatures in support of Age Appropriate Design Code bills – sharing their personal stories about social media’s impact on their mental health and wellbeing. Together we’re helping to drive a monumental shift in how people think about Big Tech’s responsibility for the harmful side effects of their toxic business model. Despite the onslaught of bad tech news, we are seeing positive changes toward the safe and healthy internet we all believe in.
We appreciate you being here with us and look forward to keeping you apprised of our work.
Thanks,
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Nicole Gill
Co-founder and Executive Director
Accountable Tech
[1] CNBC: [link removed] [[link removed]] [2] The Guardian: [link removed] [[link removed]] [3] CNN: [link removed] [[link removed]]
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Democracy depends on common truths. Social media giants are eroding our consensus reality and pushing democracy to the brink. Accountable Tech is fighting back by urging social media companies to serve the public good by strengthening the integrity of their platforms and our democracy. Make a donation to fund our work → [[link removed]]
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