POINT/COUNTERPOINT: We can’t blame everything on Mark Zuckerberg (even if it’s fun)
What happened to personal responsibility?
Below is an excerpt from my most recent column with Colorado Politics, the Colorado Springs Gazette, and the Denver Gazette. You can read the full piece here.
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“Would you like to apologize for what you’ve done to these good people?” U.S. Senator Josh Hawley (R-Missouri) asked Meta’s CEO Mark Zuckerberg earlier this week at a congressional hearing regarding social media and its effects on young Americans.
Zuckerberg stood and turned to apologize to certain members of the audience, families of young people who lost their lives to suicide, overdose or murder that stemmed from communications on social media platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, TikTok and X. During his remarks, U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-South Carolina) said these companies must be “reined in” and they “have a product that is killing people.” Similar sentiments have been shared by Democrats in Congress as well.
When a murderer uses a Smith & Wesson to kill an innocent being, we don’t see Sen. Graham chastising the company’s chief executive, Mark P. Smith, as having “blood on his hands.” Nor do we see the CEO of Ford being asked to apologize to those who lost their lives when one of their vehicles is operated by a drunk driver. Why not? Because that wouldn’t make sense.