Facebook is My Best Friend –
August 3, 2019 – The 39-year-old senator has also lobbied tech executives and regulators during his short term. He drafted a letter to Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg this year explaining his desire to mitigate Facebook’s impact on American society. “The burden to protect the American people from forces parasitic on our national life and on our economy is on me and my colleagues,” Hawley wrote.
Hawley and fellow Republican Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas wrote to the Federal Trade Commission last month, asking the agency to open an investigation into the issue of tech censorship. In a May op-ed, in which he called Facebook, Twitter and Instagram parasitic, Hawley said that social media has done more collective harm than good, and he even went so far as to say that it would be better if these sites didn’t exist at all.
Though this bill wouldn’t ban social media entirely, it was met with resistance from tech experts and other lawmakers immediately after its announcement. Some critics chimed in online and said its proposals would restrict both tech companies and users too much. Others said the science behind social media addiction has yet to be proven.
