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Thirty-five advocacy groups and 64 child development experts want Facebook to drop ‘Instagram for kids’

The Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood, which often leads campaigns to protect kids from big tech, has sent a co-signed letter to Facebook appealing for it to stop plans for its under-13 Instagram program. They argue that it poses multiple risks to young children and adolescents, including excessive focus on appearance, challenging their sense of self and well-being, and increased risk of depression and suicide ideation. Concern was also raised about Instagram algorithms that could be used to persuade children to use other apps or otherwise hook kids.

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Big Tech is lobbying for privacy laws…that benefit them

April 20, 2021

Corporate lobbyists and special interest groups have been working hard at the state level to push through privacy legislation that will specifically offer weak alternatives to California's strict privacy law, according a review done by The Markup. While bills such as the recently passed one in Virginia, look on the surface like laws to benefit the consumer, they are designed to make opting out and requesting data much harder or more opaque, in the hope that the bulk of personal data will continue to be available to corporations. The chart shows that far more proposed state laws are the same or weaker than Virginia's. A long term industry goal is to set a weak national bill that business can have work in their favor.

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