The boss of social-media company Snap Inc. SNAP 0.83% says government regulation isn’t a substitute for companies working to promote the well-being of their users.
“We’ve always been very open about regulation,” Snap Chief Executive Evan Spiegel said Tuesday at The Wall Street Journal’s Tech Live conference. “The important point to make is that regulation is not a substitute for moral responsibility and for business practices that support the health and well-being of your community, because regulation just happens far too late.”
His comments come as Facebook Inc., FB 1.39% a Snap competitor, has drawn criticism amid signs the content on its platforms can be harmful to some users. Facebook researchers have found that the company’s Instagram service is harmful for a sizable percentage of its users, most notably teenage girls, according to documents reviewed by the Wall Street Journal. An investigation by the Journal found that the powerful algorithms behind popular short-video app TikTok can drive minors into endless spools of content about sex and drugs.
Facebook and TikTok Inc. have defended their services and said they adjust as problems emerge. Lawmakers have been considering making changes to a provision in the 1996 Communications Decency Act that provides online companies that host user-generated content some legal protections from what happens on their platforms.
Unless companies are seeking to protect and promote the health of their user base, Mr. Spiegel said, regulators are always going to be playing catch-up when some irreversible damage already might have been done.
Mr. Spiegel said Snap takes steps to police its platform, such as limiting the data it collects on users and heavily monitoring content that goes viral.
He also said Snap is creating what he described as a “family center,” where young people and their parents can use the company’s Snapchat app together. Parents can monitor privacy settings and see with whom their children are interacting. One of the goals with the product is to open up a dialogue between parents and their children about their experiences on the app, he said.
“We noticed with our 10-year-old Flynn—who isn’t on Snapchat, but is using Roblox—whenever we have open conversations about the technology that he’s using, we find that not only does he learn something, but we also learn something as parents about the services he’s navigating and how to navigate uncomfortable situations, like if a stranger contacts him,” Mr. Spiegel said.
Write to Meghan Bobrowsky at [email protected]
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Appeared in the October 20, 2021, print edition as ‘Regulation Seen No Cure for Social-Media Ills.’
