Social media consequences are 'stunning, harmful': Rep. Ken Buck
Rep. Ken Buck, R-Colo., joins 'Sunday Night in America' to weigh in on multiple lawsuits facing YouTube, Snapchat, Instagram and Facebook.
Rep. Ken Buck, R-Colo., revealed battle plans against social media companies and their war against free speech on "Sunday Night in America with Trey Gowdy."
Buck, who was promoting his latest book "Crushed: Big Tech's War on Free Speech," explained to Gowdy exactly what he meant by the term "war" in the title.
"We know that the Biden administration has contacted social media companies asked them to take people off of social media because they disagree with the Biden administration’s narrative on vaccines or masks or some other issue. We know that these companies have actually discriminated, took Clarence Thomas’ video off of YouTube during the Black History Month, we know that they are doing, suppressing positive stories on Republican members of Congress and presidential candidates. That’s a war in my mind," Buck told Gowdy.
Rep. Ken Buck appeared on "Sunday Night in America." (Fox News)
He continued, "When you control the flow of information in a democracy, you control elections. That is scary. And I think the American public needs to know and make sure they support efforts to create competition and to make sure we don’t allow a few companies to control the flow of information in this country."
Buck also attacked Big Tech as a whole for its efforts to target young users with social media’s addictive qualities, citing a recent lawsuit put forward by a Seattle public school district.
A Seattle public school district filed a lawsuit against TikTok and Meta alleging they promote a mental health crisis among young users. (Muhammed Selim Korkutata/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images)
"Big Tech has developed techniques to hook young people on social media. They understand that when young people see positive images, they get a hit of dopamine that brings them back over and over and over again. The consequences that we saw with Instagram, some of the reports that Meta produced were stunning. These young girls had body-shaming issues and depression, and even higher suicide rates. What Meta did, what Instagram did, is they doubled down and went for a younger group of girls. It is disturbing," Buck said.
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On the congressional side, Buck told Gowdy that he and his fellow House Republicans hope to promote more competition among social media companies and revealed there are bills to ensure that this can happen.
Rep. Ken Buck, R-Colo., sitting on the House Judiciary Committee. (House Judiciary Committee screenshot)
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"For the last three and a half years, we have investigated, we’ve proposed different bills. The Democrat leaders, Nancy Pelosi, Chuck Schumer, have made sure that those bills did not get to floor. I am hoping Kevin McCarthy as speaker gets the bills to floor, we get a vote on those bills and we force the Senate to vote. President Biden says he is in favor. Let’s see if he will sign them," Buck concluded.