- [Narrator] This is the Facebook logo.
This is a pile of tobacco.
Why?
Because at the recent Facebook hearings,
we've heard a lot of this.
- Facebook is just like Big Tobacco,
pushing a product that they know is harmful
to the health of young people.
- Facebook has taken Big Tobacco's playbook.
- The tobacco industry--
- Big Tobacco-- Big Tobacco--
- All right. So you get it.
Members of Congress really like this comparison,
especially around the impacts and harms
of social media on kids.
And if you look back at the hearings of the 1990s,
where the chief executives
of the biggest tobacco companies testified,
you can see why it's a handy comparison,
but as I'll explain, an imperfect one.
- Do you believe nicotine is not addictive?
- I believe nicotine is not addictive, yes.
- Congressmen, cigarettes and nicotine clearly do not
meet the classic definitions of addiction.
- I don't believe that nicotine
or our products are addictive.
- I believe that it is not addictive.
- [Narrator] And here we are more than 25 years later.
- We certainly do not want our products to be addictive.
- So I disagree with calling our product addictive.
I also think that's not how we build products.
- In our recent Wall Street Journal, Facebook File series,
my colleagues revealed internal company documents
that show that the company knows its products cause harm,
including to kids.
Okay.
Factor tobacco.
Now, while it's a convenient analogy,
in some ways, it goes up in smoke.
For one, the tobacco companies spent decades
concealing their research,
lying and covering up what they knew
and even more important, social media
does not cause lung cancer.
- The truth is that cigarettes
are the single most dangerous consumer product ever sold.
- That's former democratic Congressman Henry Waxman.
He led the Big Tobacco hearings in the 1990s.
This is him now.
So tobacco and social media,
what do you make of this comparison?
- There's nothing good about tobacco.
It's the only legal product we have
that we know that kills and makes people sick
and has no redeeming value.
Social media has pluses and some big minuses.
- Facebook spokesman, Joe Osborne, said in a statement,
"It's an absurd comparison.
Social media helps people connect
and small businesses thrive."
But looking at how lawmakers came up with regulation
for this box may give us some clues
about how they might handle this box.
But to do that,
we have to look at the similarities between the two.
The first we can call, hooking for profit.
The more addicted you are to smoking,
the more money tobacco companies make.
The more time you spend scrolling Facebook or Instagram
and thus consuming ads,
the more money Facebook makes.
In the 1990s,
the tobacco companies denied adjusting nicotine levels
to encourage addiction.
- The claim that Phillip Morris secretly adds nicotine
during the manufacturing process to keep smokers addicted
is false.
- [Narrator] And here we are in 2021.
- But I want to drill down on this addictive element.
But isn't part of your business model to have more eyeballs
for a longer amount of time engaged using your services?
- Respectfully, Senator,
that's not actually how we build our products--
- [Narrator] Then there's the not sharing of research.
- You're the Chief Executive Officer.
What reason could you not give us this research,
if it's been conducted?
- I have no problem giving you any material we have,
if it's not in some way involved
in active litigation at this time.
- [Narrator] And here we are today.
- Will you disclose all of the reports, all of the finds.
Will you commit to full disclosure?
- Yeah, I know that we have released a number of the reports
and we are looking to find ways to release
more of this research.
I want to be clear that this research is not a bombshell.
It's not causal research.
- This research is a bombshell.
- Now again,
the tobacco companies had years of scientific evidence
of health impacts of their product.
In Facebook's case, the company is in early days
of understanding the impacts of its digital tools.
And it has already shared some information.
And that's perhaps the biggest link being made
between Big Tobacco and Facebook.
Hooking the kids early.
Though, I guess you could say that of other companies
like junk food.
Maybe we should have done this whole video
about Facebook and junk food.
The most famous tobacco targeting to kids?
- (indistinct) medical association found
that 91% of the children, three through six,
could match Joe with a Camel cigarette,
which means, Mr. Johnston,
the Joe Camel was as well known as Mickey Mouse.
Do you still maintain that Joe Camel cartoons
are not targeted towards children?
- Congressman Synar, when--
- It's a simple question, Mr. Johnston,
do you contend that it's not targeted towards children?
- Clearly and absolutely. But I can explain to you--
- [Narrator] The Facebook documents published
by the Wall Street Journal
show that the company has been thinking of more ways
to engage children.
One slide reads,
"leverage play dates to increase growth/retention".
In her testimony to Congress, Frances Haugen,
the Facebook whistleblower,
who gathered the documents that informed the Journal series
made her perspective clear.
- They have to make sure that the next generation
is just as engaged in Instagram as the current one.
And the way they'll do that is by making sure
that children establish habits
before they have good self-regulation.
- By hooking kids?
- By hooking kids.
- The Facebook spokesman said companies
that operate in a highly competitive space,
including the Wall Street Journal,
make efforts to appeal to younger generations.
Since those Big Tobacco hearings in the 90s,
we've seen regulation and settlements
that have limited the use and marketing of these,
especially to kids.
The Master Settlement Agreement of 1998
banned advertising targeted at those younger than 18
and banned the use of cartoons like Joe Camel.
Ultimately in 2009,
the FDA was given the right to regulate tobacco products,
including the levels of nicotine.
- A very similar set of parallel regulations
have to be put on the box in order to protect children
from Instagram, from social media in the same way
that our nation put laws on the box
to protect children against Big Tobacco.
- [Narrator] That's democratic Senator Ed Markey.
He has drafted the Kids Internet Design and Safety Act,
or the KIDS Act.
It aims to create new protections for users under 16.
They get to the heart of what's addicting
about social media.
- We have to ban push notification.
We have to ban auto-play.
We have to make sure that the algorithms can't be set
so that it's deliberately playing games
with the minds of children in our country
up to the age of 16.
- [Narrator] Then there's
the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act, or COPPA 2.0,
which is also backed by Markey
and has gained bipartisan support.
It would extend the current privacy protections
to 13 through 15 year olds,
ban targeted advertising to kids and more.
Beyond protecting the children, others argue
for regulating social media content algorithms
and adjusting section 230
the law that shields online platforms from being liable
for harmful content posted on their sites.
But even if Congress agrees on all that,
it will still have to contend with lobbyists
as it did with Big Tobacco.
- Facebook and other social media companies,
they can buy just about every lobbyist in Washington DC.
But when the subject of children, of teenagers is raised,
they're in a position which is indefensible.
- The Facebook spokesman said that the company
is in support of regulation.
"It's time for Congress to act." He said.
This all now sits with the lawmakers.
And if tobacco regulation is our guide,
it could be with them for a long time.
(narrator sniffing) I reek of tobacco.