House Committee on Energy and Commerce Testimony of Tim Kendall Thank you Chairpersons Pallone and Schakowsky for inviting me to speak today When I started working in technology my hope was to build products that brought people together in new and productive ways I wanted to improve the world we all lived in Instead the social media services that I and others have built over the past 15 y ears have served to tear people apart with alarming speed and intensity At the very least we have eroded our collective understanding —at worst I fear we are pushing ourselves to the brink of a civil war I feel ashamed by this outcome And I am deep ly concerned So I am compelled to talk to you about what we can do to limit further damage —and maybe even undo some of it My path in technology started at Facebook where I was the first Director of Monetization I thought my job was to figure out the business model for the company and presumably one that sought to balance the needs of its stakeholders -- its users its advertisers and its employees Instead we sought to mine as much human attention as possible and turn into historically unpreceden ted profits To do this we didn’t simply create something useful and fun We took a page from Big Tobacco’s playbook working to make our offering addictive at the outset Tobacco companies initially just sought to make nicotine more potent But event ually that wasn’t enough to grow the business as fast as they hoped And so they added sugar and menthol to cigarettes so you could hold the smoke in your lungs for longer periods At Facebook a simple directory was engaging and kept people returning to the service But business realities necessitated that we make the service even more engaging To that end we added status updates photo tagging and likes which made status and reputation primary and laid the groundwork for a teenage mental health crisis Allowing for misinformation conspiracy theories and fake news to flourish were like Big Tobacco’s bronchodilators which allowed the cigarette s moke to cover more s urface area of the lungs But that incendiary content alone was n’t enough To continue to grow the us er bas e and in particular the amount of time and attention us ers would s urrender to Facebook they needed more Tobacco companies added ammonia to cigarettes to increas e the s peed with which nicotine traveled to the brain Extreme incendiary content—think s hocking images graphic videos and headlines that incite outrage—s owed tribalis m and divis ion And the res ult has been unprecedented engagement -- and profits Facebook’s ability to deliver this incendiary content to the right pers on at the right time in the exact right way that is their ammonia Social media preys on the mos t primal parts of your brain The algorithm maximizes your attention by hitting you repeatedly with content that triggers your s tronges t emotions — it aims to provoke s hock and enrage As you know Section 230 of the 1996 Communications Decency Act s hields Internet companies from liability for third-party content I can think of few indus tries that enjoy s uch broad immunity and none that have profited s o greatly from this lack of bas ic regulation I’m not a lawyer or legis lator but I can't imagine where we'd be if we hadn' t held tobacco companies accountable for making s o many people s ick And yet that is what we have allowed thes e companies to do It has to change When it comes to mis information thes e companies hide behind the Firs t Amendment and s ay they s tand for free s peech At the s ame time their algorithms continually choos e whos e voice is actually heard In truth it is not free s peech they revere Ins tead Facebook and their cohorts wors hip at the altar of engagement and cas t all other concerns as ide rais ing the voices of divis ion anger hate and mis information to drown out the voices of truth jus tice morality and peace On a pers onal level I’m aware that I’ve benefited from thes e addictive bus ines s models and this deepens my s ens e of res pons ibility for where we are and my s ens e of obligation to help us improve things I don’t believe that I could have known at the time where the work that I contributed to would lead But for my role I do bear s ome res pons ibility And s o I regret my part in it One thing I can do today however is what I am doing dedicate all my time and res ources to undo as much damage as I can To be clear s ocial media is not the root caus e of every problem we’re facing But I believe it may be the mos t powerful accelerant in his tory Thes e s ervices are making us s ick Thes e s ervices are dividing us It’s time we take account of the damage It’s time we put in place the neces s ary meas ures to protect ours elves —and our country