Politics

Senator Markey Threatens Regulations After Facebook Memo Showing Lack Of Care Over Potential Deaths Is Revealed

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Eric Lieberman Managing Editor
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Democratic Sen. Ed Markey of Massachusetts threatened to devise and enact regulations on social media after finding out a Facebook executive published a memo appearing to express insensitivity over its effects.

“So we connect more people,” Facebook Vice President Bosworth wrote in a company wide message in 2016, which BuzzFeed recently published. “That can be bad if they make it negative. Maybe it costs someone a life by exposing someone to bullies. Maybe someone dies in a terrorist attack coordinated on our tools.”

Markey took offense to such statements and took to Twitter to show it.

“Death from bullying cannot be the cost of doing business,” wrote Markey. “Terrorist attacks cannot be the cost of doing business.”

Bosworth’s memo continued:

The ugly truth is that we believe in connecting people so deeply that anything that allows us to connect more people more often is *de facto* good. It is perhaps the only area where the metrics do tell the true story as far as we are concerned. That isn’t something we are doing for ourselves. Or for our stock price (ha!). It is literally just what we do. We connect people. Period.

Facebook has already been dealing with an onslaught of backlash from the public and lawmakers about an arguable lack of care over how its platform is used. The latest memo corroborates fears that the social media platform can have perverse consequences and that Facebook mostly seeks to profit off of user data. (RELATED: Zuckerberg: I Am ‘Fundamentally Uncomfortable’ Deciding If Content Is Hate Speech Or Not)

“It is @facebook’s moral obligation to maintain the integrity and safety of their platform,” Markey continued. “When they fail to do so, Congress must act.”

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg is reportedly set to testify in front of Congress to answer questions relating to concerns over protection of user data and steps the tech giant can take to stop people from exploiting the platform’s features and offerings.

His main goal will likely be to assuage the concerns of large portions of the public and officials as the prospect of regulations seem to be growing with each respective call for them. (RELATED: Google And Facebook Have Donated Thousands To Congressmen They Are Testifying Before)

Facebook did not respond to The Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment in time of publication.

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