The Congressional Record is a unique source of public documentation. It started in 1873, documenting nearly all the major and minor policies being discussed and debated.
“Big Tech (Executive Session)” mentioning Chuck Grassley was published in the Senate section on pages S845-S846 on Feb. 24.
Of the 100 senators in 117th Congress, 24 percent were women, and 76 percent were men, according to the Biographical Directory of the United States Congress.
Senators' salaries are historically higher than the median US income.
The publication is reproduced in full below:
Big Tech
Mr. GRASSLEY. Madam President, last week I held 12 meetings in Iowa. Those meetings are for the purpose of having dialogue with my constituents, mostly answering their questions. As many of my colleagues know, I hold face-to-face meetings with Iowans in all 99 counties every year. It has been a privilege to get to every county in every corner of the State every single year for the past four decades.
People have asked me why I do this. The simple answer is, in our system of self-government, I am one half of a representative government; my constituents are the other half. My county meetings are a good way for me to keep in touch and see for myself the challenges and successes going on in communities across my home State. In recent years, it has become an important way for me to counter disinformation, correct misinformation, and sidestep censorship that Americans digest daily in the mainstream and social media.
Big tech and big data companies, much like State surveillance and Big Brother, share something in common: If left unchecked, Big Tech can undermine the privacy, civil liberties, and constitutional freedoms that every American should hold sacred and should never take for granted.
Responsible digital citizenship is more important now than ever, particularly with the censuring that is going on. Consumers must be mindful about their digital footprint. Anything typed into a search engine is effectively a digital diary, saved in the cloud for some rainy day. Consumers must be mindful about what is posted, what is downloaded, what is shared, and what is liked on social media platforms.
The road to responsible and accountable digital citizenship isn't solely the consumer's responsibility. Social media companies, as well as content and internet providers, are not exempt from ethical corporate stewardship, especially when the welfare of the next generation is at stake. Keep in mind that human trafficking is a pervasive crime that grooms and blackmails young people on Main Street but also in online communications.
However, having said all those question marks about Big Tech, I think we all realize that Big Tech isn't all bad. Technology companies have revolutionized our way of life and how we connect with friends and family. During the pandemic--and we are still in that pandemic--
technology delivered invaluable connections for e-commerce, for digital learning, for teleworking, and for telehealth. However, that doesn't give big tech and big data companies license to undermine constitutional protections or disregard harmful impacts their products and services have on civic life and public trust in our American democracy. Titans of technology need to take responsibility for the products they build, sell, and profit from fellow Americans.
Policymakers and regulators have a duty to shape and enforce the rules of the road. Big Tech and all of its stakeholders, from content makers, social media platforms, and internet service providers, all bear responsibility to understand how their business model puts freedom at risk. Red flags are popping up all over the digital frontier, from recurring data breaches to online censorship, misuse of user profiles, and the recent mess with an online brokerage app.
In the last two Presidential elections, Big Tech has had a big influence on information that appeared or didn't appear in Americans' social media feeds.
Big Tech can't hide behind its business model when its revenue streams cash in on an infrastructure that sows division and distrust among Americans. This ecosystem has been exploited to radicalize political extremism and mobilize civil unrest. Social media companies have reaped the benefits of their enterprise, so these companies bear some responsibility to help repair cracks in the architecture of our civic institutions and also to heal the wounds festering in American life.
Our economic freedom allows social media companies to create a business model that grows their bottom line. Americans need to understand their personal data is harvested for profit. Advertisers buy the data to influence consumer and voter behavior. The bottom line for every American ought to be ensuring that constitutional protections aren't archived--out of sight, out of mind--in the annals of history.
I am not saying Big Tech is a bad actor, but I am calling on Big Tech to be a good actor. Take responsibility for the online ecosystem you created.
Congress also must take a good, hard look at this famous section 230 we all talk about that has given these platforms great protection--more protection than they probably deserve--and whether, in regard to section 230, there is a need to reform immunity laws on the books. I think there is great reason to do that.
We have seen what happens when conversations take place online versus in person. Take it from me. The tone of conversation was neighborly and civil when I talked with these Iowans last week in Forest City, IA, or Ogden, IA, to answer their questions. However civil that is, it is sure offset by the incivility on these platforms. Incivility outflanks kindness, I think, tenfold in the responses posted on my Twitter account.
We need to work together to heal the unholy civil divide that has taken root online. It is bleeding into our way of life, pitting neighbor against neighbor, and harming the ability of elected leaders to build bipartisan consensus for the public good.
I am here to put social media platforms, the mainstream media, Congress, and the American public on notice: The digital landscape needs a reboot. What we do with this space will influence how young people participate in civic and political life for generations to come.
So, in closing, in the coming days, I am going to have more conversations with my colleagues on this through a series of speeches. I will be talking more about social and mainstream media, censorship, and freedom of speech, particularly on college campuses.
I yield the floor.
The PRESIDING OFFICER (Ms. Smith). The Senator from Maryland.
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