Richard Blumenthal
The Public Record
Richard Blumenthal is an American lawyer and politician serving as the senior United States senator from Connecticut since 2011. A member of the Democratic Party, Blumenthal has focused on issues such as consumer protection, healthcare, and veterans' affairs during his tenure. He previously served as the Attorney General of Connecticut from 1991 to 2011, where he gained recognition for his advocacy on behalf of consumers and his efforts to hold corporations accountable. Blumenthal has been an active voice in the Senate, participating in various committees and addressing key national issues.
Do you support prohibitions, bans on advertising and marketing to teens for products that are illegal for them to consume?
I think we need legislation on privacy, to protect the enormous amounts of data that are collected on kids, on transparency to show what these algorithms are doing.
There is no excuse for it. But it dramatically shows one of the key failings of Instagram and a lot of these tech platforms, which is they have no responsiveness to parents, or anyone else reporting this toxic addictive content that is…
Shouldn't children and parents have the right to report dangerous material abuse and get a response? Get some action.
Facebook knows about the harm, it has done the research, the studies, the surveys repeatedly, it knows the destructive consequences of the algorithms and designs.
I know everybody thinks of me as a very nice guy, but I am going to be ruthless.
Instagram is addictive. That is the view that has been repeated again and again and again by people who are experts in this field.
the law required companies to disclose risks. It encouraged them to compete over values that were positive and that promoted safety.
today I rise to recognize Mr. Carl Leogrande, a remarkable man and World War II veteran who turns 100 on January 3, 2022. Following the invasion of Normandy, Mr. Leogrande served as a tank driver for the 12th Armored Division. After his…
The trust is gone. What we need now is independent researchers, objective overseers not chosen by big tech but from outside.
Because an industry body is not Government regulation that Mark Zuckerberg or others at Facebook and elsewhere have called for.
Will you commit to a legal requirement that the access be provided and that an independent, separately appointed and separately funded body, not an industry body, as you have suggested, but an independent overseer and researcher, have that…
That is a pretty low bar, Mr. Mosseri. That is like you are in the gutter, forgive me, in terms of transparency.
Congress should pass the bipartisan Children's and Teens Online Privacy Protection Act authored by Senator Markey.
Shouldn't kids in the United States have protection as good as the kids in UK enjoy?
Thank you, Senator Cantwell. Thanks for your excellent work on this issue and your help and support in these hearings.





