The Blubber

Per Axios

Although some sites have restrictions that prohibit those under 18 from using them, the Texas House has tentatively approved new measures requiring those under 18 to gain parental consent for social media and other sites. This comes upon the initial approval of House Bill 18.

The bill would enforce a provision that would see those under 18 need to gain parental or guardian consent to use any "digital service provider." Rep. Shelby Slawson gave a statement regarding the bill, saying it would require the highest privacy levels to be offered to parents.

Slawson: "Through this bill, we will provide parents with the tools that they desperately need and demand to better protect our children in the digital world... (Tech companies) are not motivated by the best interest of the user, but motivated to increase clicks, shares, likes, users and screen time for their bottom lines."

The measure was testified against by some of the major tech companies, including Meta and YouTube, which noted that the move would come with complex challenges. Antigone Davis, Meta's VP of safety, gave a statement to lawmakers in March.

Davis: "There's a very real and complex challenge because inevitably people move toward asking for IDs which creates all kinds of access to information that you might not really want us to have,"

In mid-March, observers said that social media posts have helped fuel the banking system concerns amid the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank. An article by the WSJ during that time cited "Twitter and other social media platforms" as factors that had affected the bank runs.

At the start of the year, it was reported that China removed over a thousand social media accounts, citing almost 13,000 violations. This comes as the most popular app in the country, Weibo, said that the reason they purposely suspended accounts was due to them criticizing China's specialists for COVID-19.

See flow at unusualwhales.com/flow.

Other News:

• Observers said social media posts helped fuel banking system concerns amid the Silicon Valley Bank collapse
• China Removes Over 1,000 Social Media Accounts, Citing Almost 13,000 Violations

Resources:

Axios

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