WASHINGTON – Sens. Michael Bennet and Peter Welch introduced the Digital Platforms Commissions Act last month to push for a federal agency to provide regulations for digital platforms.
This week, Bennet brought the act to the Senate floor to address the concerns targeted in the proposed legislation.
“Speaking as a parent who has raised three daughters in this era, we certainly have not agreed to run a science experiment on our children with machine learning algorithms and generative AI chatbots that the companies themselves barely understand at all,” Bennet said on the Senate floor.
Some of the main goals of the new federal agency would be to protect consumers, promote competition and defend the public interest.
The act seeks to establish a five-member expert commission that has the ability to hold hearings, hold and pursue investigations, conduct research, assess fines, and engage in rulemaking to establish guidelines for digital platforms.
The platform would be able to subject “systemically important digital platforms” to more oversight, reporting and possibly stricter regulations. The regulations would include requirements for accountability for their algorithms, auditing and transparency.
A Code Council of experts in technology and social media would also be created under the act to establish specific standards, behavioral codes and other policies that would be under the commission for consideration.
“There’s no reason that the biggest tech companies on Earth should face less regulation than Colorado’s small businesses – especially as we see technology corrode our democracy and harm our kids' mental health with virtually no oversight,” Bennet said in a news release. “Technology is moving quicker than Congress could ever hope to keep up with. We need an expert federal agency that can stand up for the American people and ensure AI tools and digital platforms operate in the public interest.”
Social media has increasingly become one of the biggest gateways for information in the last decade; seven-in-10 Americans had access to some form of social media in 2021.
Digital platforms have been overseen by the Department of Justice and the Federal Trade Commission. However, these agencies need more expert staff and resources to oversee digital platforms, according to Bennet and Welch.
Their bill is one of the first pieces of legislation calling for the regulation of AI (artificial intelligence) and social media in Congress. The bill comes after Sam Altman, the CEO of OpenAI, most known for the platform ChatGPT, gave his testimony in front of Congress.
Altman himself agreed that legislation and regulations are needed for social media and AI technology. In his testimony, he called upon legislators to create regulations for AI technology.
“I think if this technology goes wrong, it can go quite wrong. And we want to be vocal about that,” Altman said. “We want to work with the government to prevent that from happening.”
Montana is one of the only states to ban TikTok, with Gov. Greg Gianforte tweeting that the ban was to “protect all Montanans.”
The Digital Platforms Commissions Act is one of a number of actions Bennet has taken to secure social media regulation in Congress. Earlier this month, Bennet introduced the Overseeing Emerging Technology Act to task designated senior officials to ensure the U.S. government is utilizing emerging technology in a way that “is consistent with democratic values.”
“We're still coming to grips to terms with the harm from 20 years of unregulated social media and we haven't come to grips with that. Every parent knows that,” Bennet said on the Senate floor.
Mina Allen is an intern for The Durango Herald and The Journal in Cortez and a student at American University in Washington, D.C. She can be reached at mallen@durangoherald.com.
