How Social Media Companies Are Weaponizing the First Amendment at the Expense of Our Kids

This San Francisco Chronicle op-ed argues that a gap exists between technology executives' public statements about protecting children — including sworn congressional testimony — and their companies' lobbying practices. Julie Scelfo names trade associations including NetChoice, TechNet, and the Computer & Communications Industry Association as recipients of tech-industry funding that she says is used to oppose state and federal bills on youth privacy protections and limits on attention-holding product design. She frames the industry's free-speech arguments against such legislation as a strategic use of First Amendment claims to block regulation rather than a principled objection, and calls on lawmakers to weigh those claims against the design choices she says the same companies decline to change voluntarily.

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