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Facebook outage highlights risks of overdependence on single tech giant

October 6, 2021 by WDNY Radio

(NEW YORK) — On Monday, the crash of Facebook and the company’s apps threw the Internet into disarray and plunged billions of users into digital darkness. The outage illustrated how essential Facebook’s services have become as well as the risks of its dominance, particularly in developing countries.

Facebook said in a blog post on Tuesday the crash was caused by an error during routine maintenance, which took down global data servers.

During the outage, Facebook’s website and app were inaccessible, as were WhatsApp and Instagram, two of the company’s most popular acquisitions.

While the outage was relatively brief — around six hours — some researchers said it points to the downsides of a growing reliance on a single company’s services.

“I think it speaks to the vulnerability of our dependence on these platforms,” said Philip Roessler, a professor at William & Mary, at which he co-directs the Digital Inclusion and Governance Lab.

Roessler said that in countries where he does his research — places like Kenya and Malawi — WhatsApp is an essential part of the communications infrastructure, especially as mobile customers take advantage of WhatsApp-dedicated bundles that are much cheaper than standard mobile data.

“It’s become this kind of backbone of these emerging economies,” he said, highlighting how businesses use WhatsApp to communicate with customers and suppliers alike, while workers use it to find jobs.

WhatsApp is also valuable in places without universal literacy, Roessler said, because the platform allows users to send voice-based messages.

In Brazil, local broadcaster Globo reported that the outage temporarily crippled some small businesses, rendering them unable to fill orders.

The implications of a growing dependence on Facebook’s services go beyond the economic, according to Ryan Shandler, a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Oxford who highlighted the role played by social media platforms in aiding free speech and assembly.

“People have become dependent on this platform to realize basic civil and human rights,” he said.

In 2014, Facebook paid $19 billion to acquire WhatsApp. The messaging app’s rise to prominence, according to the Electronic Frontier Foundation’s Jon Callas, was due in part to cost. The data required to use the service, Callas said, could be cheaper than a traditional text message, also known as SMS.

“It was fantastically cheap and it was certainly as good as SMS, so lots and lots of people started using it as a replacement for that,” Callas said.

According to data from the digital analytics company Similarweb, Whatsapp is the most popular mobile messaging app in several of the world’s most populous countries, including India, Indonesia, Nigeria and Brazil.

In July, Facebook said in a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission that its apps had around 3.51 billion users.

While the crash sparked a range of humorous responses — Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey joked on his own platform about buying Facebook.com, which was erroneously listed as for sale during the outage — its consequences could have been more serious, said Roessler, adding: “If it had lasted much longer, you know, the effects would have been quite deep and severe.”

As Republicans play debt limit brinksmanship, nation barrels toward default

October 5, 2021 by WDNY Radio

(WASHINGTON) — As the nation barrels toward default, Republicans are poised to sink a Democratic effort to suspend the federal borrowing limit.

Republicans in the Senate are filibustering a House-passed measure that would suspend the debt limit until December 2022. At least 10 Republicans would need to join all Senate Democrats to break a GOP filibuster and allow a simple majority vote to pass the bill.

Democrats argue that this would give Republicans exactly what they’re asking for: an increase to the nation’s borrowing limit approved solely by Democrats.

“Tomorrow’s vote is not a vote to raise the debt ceiling. It’s, rather, a procedural step to let Democrats raise the debt ceiling on our own,” Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said Tuesday. “We’re telling Republicans that we’re not asking you to vote for it, just let us vote for it.”

But Republicans aren’t backing down. They’ve maintained for months that Democrats must act to raise the federal debt limit on their own, because they have total control of Washington and are planning to pass a multi-trillion social and economic package with zero input from Republicans.

“They said they’re perfectly prepared to do the job themselves,” Senate GOP Leader Mitch McConnell insisted to reporters Tuesday. “The easiest way to do that is through the reconciliation process as I pointed out for two months.”

McConnell, R-Ky., has said repeatedly that Democrats should have to hike the debt limit to cover the cost of potentially trillions in yet-passed parts of President Joe Biden’s agenda, though the debt limit must be raised to cover spending that already took place under the Trump administration with unified GOP support.

Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., told ABC News on Tuesday he won’t support moving forward on a vote.

“We are not going to empower a radical march toward socialism,” Graham, the top Republican on the Budget Committee, said.

Sen. Bernie Sanders, the Senate budget committee chairman, floated a potential solution that would involve temporarily suspending the chamber’s filibuster rules that require 60 votes for most legislation.

“Where it may come down to is a demand that at least for the debt ceiling that we end the filibuster … and pass it with 51 votes,” Sanders suggested.

But the 50-member Democratic caucus would have to remain unified to do this, and both moderates Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Arizona Sen. Kyrsten Sinema have balked at any changes to the filibuster rules.

No Republican has yet gone on the record to say he or she is prepared to join Democrats to clear the way for a final vote on the debt limit Wednesday, though moderate Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, opened the door to potentially joining the majority.

“I want to make sure we are doing everything that we can to not send us into a situation of default, and I don’t even want to get close,” Murkowski said. “We have to make sure. We just have to ensure.”

The nation technically hit the debt ceiling Aug. 1, with the Treasury Department using extraordinary measures to pay the nation’s bills. But Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said that by Oct. 18, her department’s efforts would be fully exhausted and default would be all but certain.

Pressure is mounting alongside partisan gridlock, with no backup plan emerging.

McConnell and his conference are insisting that Democrats use a fast-track budget tool called reconciliation that allows the majority to break a filibuster to pass certain legislation. Use of this arcane process is cumbersome, could take weeks and opens up Democrats to a series of potentially politically painful votes.

But there could be an added political benefit for Republicans in insisting that this process be used. It would put Democrats on the record raising the debt ceiling by a hefty dollar amount, whereas Wednesday’s vote — simply suspending the debt limit by no specified amount — does not. That would feed into the GOP narrative that Democrats are out-of-control spenders.

“We’re very interested in a specific dollar amount,” Sen. Mike Rounds, R-S.D., said Tuesday. “They’re going to have to come before the American people and say, ‘We’re going to increase the debt ceiling by X amount, because this is the amount we intend to spend’, and one way or another, it puts them on the record as to their spending proposals.”

Some Democrats say they’d support using reconciliation if it meant a swift resolution of the debt limit issue. Manchin said the process should be considered, and Sen. Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut told reporters that “everything should be on the table” when pressed on whether the fast-track budget tool should be considered.

But each passing day limits the time Democrats would have to fast track a debt ceiling increase through the multi-step process to final passage, and Democrats tell ABC News that no work has begun on the reconciliation process, even behind the scenes.

“No, not at the moment,” Sanders told ABC News.

Some Democrats were more emphatic.

“Reconciliation was never on the table,” Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren said. “There’s not enough time to make reconciliation work.”

But on Tuesday, Schumer did not expressly rule it out.

When asked if he was ruling out using the budget process, Schumer repeatedly referenced the Wednesday vote as the preferred way to go about hiking the debt cap.

“Reconciliation is a drawn out, convoluted process. We’ve shown the best way to go. We’re moving forward in that direction,” Schumer said, refusing to entertain a Plan B.

If the nation defaults, the results are sure to be catastrophic. The White House has warned that an unprecedented default could send shockwaves through the global economy and trigger a recession. The political implications for both parties are unclear.

Florida trying to block money Biden sent to school districts fined for mask mandates

October 5, 2021 by WDNY Radio

(WASHINGTON) — Days after the Biden administration reimbursed two Florida school districts whose board members lost their salaries for mandating masks for students, the state’s top education official is trying to strip the districts of the money.

In a series of memoranda, Florida Commissioner of Education Richard Corcoran recommended Monday that the Florida Board of Education, which meets Thursday, withhold “state funds in an amount equal to any federal grant funds awarded” to districts that defy Gov. Ron DeSantis’ ban on school mask requirements.

Corcoran said he found probable cause that 11 school districts, including Miami-Dade and Palm Beach, violated state laws by implementing a mask mandate.

He also recommended that the Board withhold the salaries of the board members in each district, a punishment already handed down in late August to officials in Alachua and Broward counties.

In response to that crackdown, the U.S. Department of Education awarded the Alachua and Broward districts hundreds of thousands of dollars to make up for the lost paychecks. The money was issued through the Project SAFE grant program, which was created last month to reimburse school districts that lose state money for implementing coronavirus mitigation strategies.

The Florida Department of Education has not announced that it has begun withholding salaries from school board members in other districts requiring masks.

Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona indicated in August that districts punished by Florida for requiring masks for students would be eligible for grant money. “I want you to know that the U.S. Department of Education stands with you,” he wrote in a letter to superintendents.

The 11 districts that Corcoran said violated the law will be under the microscope Thursday, when the Board of Education meets to decide whether to implement the commissioner’s recommendations and punish them.

District officials in Alachua and Broward counties questioned the legality of blocking federal funding on Tuesday.

“We’re always concerned when funds are withheld from public education, but we’re particularly concerned about the state interfering with federal funding. This will almost certainly have to be settled in court,” Dr. Carlee Simon, superintendent of Alachua County Public Schools, said in a statement to ABC News.

Dr. Rosalind Osgood, chair of the school board in Broward County, called Corcoran’s recommendations to the Board of Education “extremely displeasing” and said her district was complying with the law “and saving lives.”

“Our students and staff need academic support, mental health support and job security. The way that the Governor and Commissioner of Education have handled this issue has caused added trauma, unemployment and a major disruption in school board operations,” Osgood said in a statement to ABC News.

Volvo recalling over 400,000 cars due to air bag defect that left 1 dead

October 5, 2021 by WDNY Radio

(NEW YORK) — Volvo is recalling over 460,000 cars due to an air bag defect that could result in passenger injury.

The recall affects older sedans, including 2001-2009 S60s and 2001-2006 S80s.

According to documents from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), the driver’s air bag inflator “may explode during deployment,” which could result in sharp metal fragments striking the driver or other occupants. There has been at least one death due to the defect, according to the documents.

“Our investigations have identified an issue where driver airbag inflators may under certain circumstances be subjected to excessive pressures during deployment potentially resulting in an inflator rupture,” a Volvo spokesperson said. “The excessive pressure can occur if the inflator has been subjected to elevated levels of moisture and high inflator temperatures frequently during its lifetime.”

To remedy the issue, Volvo will contact owners of cars subject to the recall. Dealerships will replace the driver’s air bag for free.

Class-action lawsuit filed against energy companies following Huntington Beach oil spill

October 5, 2021 by WDNY Radio

(LOS ANGELES) — A proposed class-action lawsuit has been filed against the companies who run the oil line that dumped hundreds of thousands of crude oil off the coast of California over the weekend.

The federal lawsuit, filed Monday in the Central District of California Western Division, claimed the companies in charge of operating the rig and connected pipelines caused harm to people, wildlife and the local ecosystem by failing to prevent the spill from the platform about 4.5 miles from shore, known as “Elly.”

The lawsuit also accuses the defendants of failing to warn or provide the public with “adequate and timely notice of the hazards and their impacts.”

“At the time of this complaint’s filing, deceased animals were washing up covered in oil on the shorelines of the Affected Area and a large ecological reserve nearby had suffered tremendous damage,” the lawsuit stated, defining the “Affected Area” as the stretch of coast between Huntington Beach and Newport Beach and the defendants as Amplify Energy Corporation its subsidiary, the Beta Operating Company and other affiliates that may also hold responsibility.

A maximum of 144,000 gallons leaked into the Pacific Ocean after a pipe broke Saturday morning, according to officials. By early Sunday morning, the oil had reached the shore, fanning out over an area of about 5.8 nautical miles and entering the Talbert Marshlands and the Santa Ana River Trail, according to the city of Huntington Beach.

As a result, nearby beaches were closed to facilitate the cleanup and prevent residents from inhaling toxic fumes from the crude oil. Dana Point Harbor, about 30 miles south of Huntington Beach, became the latest location to close on Tuesday morning.

Hundreds of people are participating in cleanup efforts, both on land and in the ocean.

The main plaintiff, Peter Moses Gutierrez, is a disc jockey who frequently performs on Huntington Beach, according to the lawsuit. Gutierrez expects to lose a “substantial amount” of business in the foreseeable future as a result of the spill, the complaint alleges.

Gutierrez and other plaintiffs claim they have also been exposed to toxins from the oil, according to the lawsuit.

The nearly 18-mile Elly pipeline and the facilities that operate it were built in the late 1970s and early 1980s, according to the lawsuit.

The pipeline was likely leaking before the damage was discovered Saturday morning, Orange County supervisor Katrina Foley stated over the weekend. Officials from a division of the California Department of Fish and Wildlife stated in a report that they were notified of an “observed sheen” off the Huntington Beach coast at 10:22. p.m. on Friday, according to documents obtained by ABC News.

The U.S. Coast Guard was notified of the leak on Saturday morning, Amplify CEO Martyn Willsher told reporters.

Officials are looking into whether a ship anchor struck the underwater pipeline, damaging it, Willsher told reporters at a news conference Monday.

The Beta Operating Company has been cited 125 times for safety and environmental violations since 1980, The Associated Press reported, citing a database from the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement. It has been fined a total of $85,000 for three incidents.

The plaintiffs are requesting a jury trial to determine whether the defendants violated state laws and whether the defendants breached a duty and caused harm to the plaintiffs in the class-action lawsuit. The jury will also be asked whether restitution and compensatory or consequential damages should be awarded to the plaintiffs.

Representatives for the Amplify Energy Corporation did not immediately respond to ABC News’ request for comment. Calls to the Beta Operating Company were not answered.

ABC News’ Jenna Harrison, Bonnie Mclean and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

COVID-19 live updates: Biden reacts to NIH director stepping down

October 5, 2021 by WDNY Radio

NEW YORK) — The United States has been facing a COVID-19 surge as the more contagious delta variant continues to spread.

More than 703,000 Americans have died from COVID-19 while over 4.8 million people have died from the disease worldwide, according to real-time data compiled by the Center for Systems Science and Engineering at Johns Hopkins University.

Just 65.5% of Americans ages 12 and up are fully vaccinated against COVID-19, according to data from the CDC.

Latest headlines:
-Sandra Lindsay, 1st to get vaccine in US, to get booster shot
-Francis Collins to step down as director of the National Institutes of Health
-J&J submits booster request to FDA

Here’s how the news is developing. All times Eastern.

Oct 05, 3:24 pm
Forecasters predict falling cases, hospitalizations, deaths

Forecasts used by the CDC predict falling cases, hospitalizations and deaths in the coming weeks in the U.S.

The COVID-19 Forecast Hub’s ensemble forecast predicts 22,686 people in the U.S. will die over the next two weeks. If that happens, it would mark more than 4,400 fewer deaths than in the previous two weeks.

ABC News’ Brian Hartman

Oct 05, 2:44 pm
Sandra Lindsay, 1st to get vaccine in US, to get booster shot

New York nurse Sandra Lindsay, the first person in the U.S. to get a COVID-19 vaccine outside a clinical trial, plans to get her Pfizer booster dose Wednesday at Long Island Jewish Medical Center in New York.

Other health care workers who also got their first shots in December are planning to join her in getting boosters on Wednesday.

Oct 05, 2:24 pm
Extremists likely to target health care sector as vaccine mandates spread

The Department of Homeland Security this week issued an intel notice warning that extremists, including white supremacists and other would-be domestic terrorists, are likely to “threaten violence or plot against healthcare personnel, facilities, and public officials in response to renewed and expanding COVID-19 mitigation measures.”

The document, distributed Monday to U.S. law enforcement and government agencies and obtained by ABC News, noted that anti-vaccine messaging will likely increase as vaccine mandates spread.

The notice warns that some of the misinformation and disinformation now circulating is being pushed and promoted by Russia, China and Iran as a means of sowing anger and discord in the U.S.

ABC News’ Josh Margolin

Oct 05, 12:32 pm
76% of 12+ population has at least 1 vaccine dose

Seventy-six percent of Americans ages 12 and above have had at least one vaccine dose, White House COVID-19 data director Cyrus Shahpar said Tuesday.

Now 65% of the total U.S. population has had at least one dose, he said.

North Carolina school board votes to make masks optional as 430 students are under quarantine

October 5, 2021 by WDNY Radio

(NEW YORK) — A North Carolina school board voted Monday to make masks optional for students and staff indoors, even as 430 students are under quarantine.

The Harnett County School Board voted 4 to 1 for the optional mask policy Monday and it takes effect Tuesday.

Prior to Tuesday, masks were mandatory in the school district, which has more than 19,600 students.

The board also voted to pass an amended quarantine policy allowing students exposed to COVID-19 who haven’t tested positive to return after seven days instead of 10 days. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends that those who are unvaccinated should quarantine at home for 14 days after exposure. However, 10-day or seven-day quarantines are acceptable if combined with testing and a negative test result.

According to the school district’s COVID-19 dashboard, as of Monday there are 53 positive virus cases among students and 13 among staff. Further, seven staff and 430 students are currently under quarantine.

The school district has not responded to ABC News’ request for comment.

Mask mandates in schools have been an ongoing heated debate as more than 48 million children under the age of 12 are still ineligible to be vaccinated.

Pediatrician Dr. Lori Langdon spoke at the boarding meeting, saying: “Your students are my patients. I want you to remember that not all students in Harnett County are healthy … Some of them live in homes with immunocompromised parents and grandparents.”

“Our concern is that if we don’t have a mask mandate, we’re just going to be on the countdown back to virtual school and that’s not what any of us want,” she added. “My mask protects you and your mask protects me from you.”

Local residents shared their opinions both for and against the mask during the virtual meeting Monday night.

Parent Gina Carucci said during the meeting, “Obviously this is very political. Masks and virus has nothing to do with the virus, it has to do with complying with the government.”

“You’re taking away their freedom of speech, their freedom to talk to their friends, their freedom to show their smiles,” she said. “These children … it should be their choice.”

Board member Vivian Bennett was the lone member to vote against making masks optional.

“I think the best interest for the people of this county is for there to be masks,” she said before the vote. “My neighbor died, and her sister is taking care of her daughter. She says that she wears a mask every minute, even sleeps in one … I could never vote to think that I might hurt some of the people that I know and don’t know in this county.”

The move by Harnett County Schools comes as a slew of other school districts have imposed mask requirements for students and staff, at times in defiance of state -level bans on mask mandates.

Vaccinations for students will likely be the next frontier of debates. In California, Gov. Gavin Newsom announced Friday a state requirement for COVID-19 vaccines for all school children between 12 to 17 once the U.S. Food and Drug Administration grants full approval of the vaccine for that age group.

Parole board asks Texas governor to pardon George Floyd in 2004 drug bust

October 5, 2021 by WDNY Radio

(NEW YORK) — A request to grant George Floyd a full posthumous pardon is headed to Texas Gov. Greg Abbott’s desk after a public defender alleged Floyd was framed in a 2004 drug bust by a former Houston police detective now indicted on murder charges.

In a letter sent Monday to Floyd’s one-time public defender Allison Mathis, the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles wrote it has “completed their consideration of your client’s application requesting a Full Pardon and have voted to recommend clemency.”

The board forwarded its recommendation to Abbott for final disposition. Abbott has not said whether he will grant the pardon.

Mathis filed the request in April, writing in the petition that a “pardon is being sought because it is just and right to clear a conviction that is not supported by evidence.”

Floyd was arrested on Feb. 5, 2004, by then-Houston undercover narcotics detective Gerald Goines, who alleged Floyd provided a second suspect .03 grams of crack cocaine to sell, according to the petition. The man Floyd allegedly gave the drugs to turned out to be a police informant who sold the drugs to Goines as part of a sting operation and was not arrested or identified, according to the petition.

Floyd eventually pleaded guilty to a drug charge and was sentenced to 10 months in state jail, authorities said.

In August 2019, Goines was charged with two counts of murder related to a botched narcotics raid at a home in southeast Houston. Goines’ police colleague, Steven Bryant, pleaded guilty in June to federal charges of falsifying records and interfering with a government investigation in an attempt to help Goines cover up an illegally obtained “no-knock” warrant on the Houston home of Rhogena Nicholas and her husband, Dennis Tuttle.

During the Jan. 28, 2019, raid, a shootout erupted in which Nicholas, Tuttle and their dog were killed and four police officers, including Goines, were shot and wounded.

In announcing the indictments of Goines and Bryant, Harris County District Attorney Kim Ogg alleged that Goines made “numerous false statements” in the affidavit presented to the judge who signed the ‘no-knock” warrant.

The scandal prompted the Harris County District Attorney to review at least 1,400 criminal cases tied to Goines.

Ogg released a statement on Monday supporting the Board of Pardons and Paroles’ recommendation to grant Floyd clemency.

“We lament the loss of former Houstonian George Floyd and hope that his family finds comfort in Monday’s decision by the Texas State Board of Pardons and Paroles to recommend clemency for a 2004 conviction,” Ogg’s statement reads.

Mathis also praised the board’s decision.

“A man was set up by a corrupt police officer intent on securing arrests rather than pursuing justice,” Mathis said in a statement. “No matter what your political affiliation is, no matter who that man was in his life or in his death, that is not something we should stand for in the United States or in Texas.”

Ben Crump, an attorney for the Floyd family, urged Abbott to grant the full pardon.

“This drug charge, which led to George Floyd’s conviction based on false evidence, helped to unravel his life,” Crump said in a statement. “Similarly, tens of thousands of Black lives are ruined by a criminal justice system that uses the war on drugs to target Black people, force them into felony pleas, incarcerate them, take away their voting rights, and destroy their families.”

Floyd died on May 25, 2020, as the result of injuries suffered when police in Minneapolis attempted to arrest him on suspicion of using a phony $20 bill to buy cigarettes. Former police officer Derek Chauvin, who pressed his knee into the back of Floyd’s neck for more than nine minutes as the 46-year-old Black man lost consciousness after repeatedly claiming of not being able to breathe, was convicted in April of second-degree unintentional murder, third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter.

Chauvin was sentenced to 22 1/2 years in prison. Three other police officers charged with aiding and abetting second-degree murder and aiding and abetting second-degree manslaughter are scheduled to go on trial next year.

Lawmakers grill Facebook exec over Instagram’s impact on teens after internal research leak

October 5, 2021 by WDNY Radio

(NEW YORK) — Facebook’s safety head was questioned by lawmakers on Thursday over what the company knew about the potential for Instagram to be harmful to young users’ mental health.

The Senate Subcommittee on Consumer Protection, Product Safety and Data Security convened the hearing in the wake of a Wall Street Journal investigation citing Facebook’s own internal research, allegedly leaked by a whistleblower, which found Instagram adversely impacted mental health issues in teens, especially girls. Among the findings were that Instagram made body image issues worse for 1 in 3 teens.

The Journal’s reporting has sparked a fierce backlash amid accusations the tech giant publicly downplayed what it knew about how potentially harmful Instagram could be while also doing nothing to prevent it.

“We’re here today because Facebook has shown us once again that it is incapable of holding itself accountable,” Committee Chair Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., said in his opening remarks. “This month, a whistleblower approached my office to provide information about Facebook and Instagram. Thanks to documents provided by that whistleblower, as well as extensive public reporting by The Wall Street Journal and others, we now have deep insight into Facebook’s relentless campaign to recruit and exploit young users.”

“We now know that Facebook routinely puts profits ahead of kids’ online safety,” he added. “We know it chooses the growth of its products over the well-being of our children, and we now know that it is in defensively delinquent in acting to protect them.”

In the wake of the Wall Street Journal expose, Facebook announced earlier this week that it was “pausing” development of an Instagram for Kids platform, but stopped short of scrapping it.

Antigone Davis, Facebook’s global head of safety, faced bipartisan scrutiny as she defended the company during the hearing that lasted some three hours. She denied Blumenthal’s claims.

“We understand that recent reporting has raised a lot of questions about our internal research, including research we do to better understand young people’s experiences on Instagram,” Davis stated in written testimony. “We strongly disagree with how this reporting characterized our work, so we want to be clear about what that research shows, and what it does not show.”

“We undertook this work to inform internal conversations about teens’ most negative perceptions of Instagram,” she added. “It did not measure causal relationships between Instagram and real-world issues.”

Davis said the reporting “implied that the results were surprising and that we hid this research,” which she said wasn’t true and that the company has discussed the “strengths and weaknesses of social media and well-being publicly for more than a decade.”

She also highlighted aspects of Facebook’s in-house research that she said the Journal didn’t include in recent stories, such as reports that Instagram made “sadness” and “loneliness” better for a majority of teenage girls.

Davis said they have removed some 600,000 accounts on Instagram alone between June and August for not meeting the age requirement of 13 years old. She also said the company has “put in place multiple protections to create safe and age-appropriate experiences for people between the ages of 13 and 17.”

The hearing comes as Big Tech has come under increased scrutiny from lawmakers on both sides of the aisle over myriad issues, from allowing the spread of misinformation to allegations of political censorship. Lawmakers on Thursday compared Instagram’s policies to Big Tobacco’s previous tactics to attract users before there was government intervention.

Brooke Erin Duffy, a professor of communication at Cornell University whose research focuses on the intersection of media, culture and technology, told ABC News via email on Thursday that Big Tech’s self-regulation hasn’t worked.

Remarks from Sen. Ed Markey, D-Mass., referring to “traditional media’s regulation of material for children — including limitations on advertising that have long guided the television industry — attest to a growing recognition that external regulation of the platforms is critical,” Duffy said. “While Big Tech has long flaunted its mechanisms of self-regulation, these have failed — and continue to fail — its users.”

Duffy said another key takeaway from Davis’ testimony was “a refusal to agree to a long-term promise to abandon plans of further developing Instagram for Kids.” She called the initiative “part of a long-term strategy by Big Tech to court younger — and less witting — users who the platforms can inevitably collect data from.”

Lawmakers on Thursday called for the need to update the 1998 Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act.

In prepared remarks, Davis defended building an Instagram “for tweens,” noting that other companies such as YouTube and TikTok already have developed versions of their app for those under 13.

“The principle is the same: It’s much better for kids to use a safer, more age-appropriate version of social media apps than the alternative,” Davis said. “That said, we recognize how important it is to get this right.”

“We have heard your concerns, and that is why we announced that we are pausing the project to take more time,” she added. “We’ll keep listening to parents, keep talking with policymakers and regulators, keep taking guidance from experts and researchers, and we’ll revisit this project at a later date.”

Suspicious vehicle near Supreme Court, man in custody: Police

October 5, 2021 by WDNY Radio

(NEW YORK) — A man is in custody after he was removed from a suspicious SUV near the Supreme Court Tuesday morning, Capitol police said.

The suspect, 55-year-old Dale Paul Melvin of Kimball, Michigan, was removed from the car and placed under arrest around 11 a.m. local time, police said.

Earlier in the morning Melvin had allegedly parked illegally and refused to talk to responding officers, authorities said. Police then brought in crisis negotiation officers.

There’s no information on motive and no weapons have been found, police said.

Everyone is safe, police said.

There were no disruptions to operations at the Supreme Court; oral arguments began as planned at 10 a.m.

The Supreme Court building remains closed to the public.

This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.

ABC News’ Devin Dwyer contributed to this report.

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