Senate bill holds Big Tech liable

Hey Tyler. Well, yeah, President Biden is expected to sign a bill very soon that would hold big tech companies more accountable for crimes involving children that happen on their network. So these are things like sex trafficking, grooming, enticing kids for sexual acts. Now, currently tech companies do have to report child sexual abuse materials on their website, but the soon to be law would also increase fines for failing to report exploitive content up to $1 million. It would also allow for evidence to be stored up to a year. That’s going to allow more time for investigations into these cases. And then allow more cases and evidence to be quickly sent between the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children and law enforcement. Several big tech companies, including Google, have come out in support of this legislation. But one of the bills sponsors, Senator Marsha Blackburn, said that social media companies are not doing enough to ensure all forms of abuse are dealt with. They have chosen to just turn that blind eye and not report it and not police it, not clean up their network. Now that excuse is taken away and they’re going to have to look for this. Blackburn is also hoping to pass some larger bills dealing with kids online safety that would require social media sites to develop tools and protections to keep kids safe. But several of those measures are caught up in a wider debate on data privacy laws. And it’s just not clear at this point, guys, whether we’re going to see some more information this year or if this bill is kind of the biggest thing we can expect Congress to pass in this space. In any case, it seems to be a clear move in One Direction. Emily, thanks.