Thread by @jason_kint

And the Senate Commerce "We're not toxic like Facebook" hearing is underway. I'll thread thoughts here but having now read written testimony, Snap uniquely stands out as an "antidote" to the problems being uncovered in Facebook. /1

super interesting data point in Snap's written I don't think I've seen previously...throttling acceleration of velocity+reach for influencers until a human reviews it. "human-reviewed and moderated before it can be viewed by more than 25 people."
Opposite of FB's whitelist. /2

And Sen Blumenthal pops bubble by saying "we're not Facebook" isn't a good bar because that bar is "in the gutter." I do think nuance is important here. Tech and social media aren't de facto bad. There are clear distinctions in Google and Facebook's biz model and market power. /3

To that point, Senator Blackburn focuses on data which is helpful. This is an area where Google and Facebook are unique in that they actually collect/mine most of their data as third parties (aka "surveillance"). TikTok data concerns are different due to Chinese-ownership. /4

Personal comment but Beckerman testifying for TikTok about trust just isn't a good look. He previously played wingman for Facebook's Joel Kaplan with lawmakers in 2018 as Facebook cover-ups unraveled. He also gave Ivanka Trump the Internet Freedom Award so there is that, too. /5

I had to hop on calls so catching up on hearing. Here is entertainment during intermission as I catch up: YouTube's witness today testified last year to Parliament who very much understands, skewered them on issues with its microtargeted amplification. /6

Oh, you want more? See, Parliament very much understood the issues with YouTube's recommendation engine. YouTube made changes shortly before the hearing to lean into "high-quality, authoritative" and "newsworthy" sources. /7

Senator Cruz just absolutely filleted Michael Beckerman and TikTok. There will be bipartisan agreement on this. This was the climax of 7 minutes of @SenTedCruz trying to get a simple answer to whether TikTok user data based on its privacy policy can go back to China affiliate. /8

Uh oh. There are about to be a whole lot of Winnie the Pooh clips on TikTok. /9

Pro tip, if you’re going to testify your company couldn’t find any evidence of a “blackout challenge” and suggest it may be due to inaccurate press reports, @SenBlumenthal has a reputation of late in his staff doing advanced homework. /10

Oomph. I guess lobbying for Google and Facebook was good training for the job at TikTok but wow the live rebuke from a parent is tough. /11