Letter to the Hon. Joseph Simons, Chairman of the Federal Trade Commission, the Hon. Noah Phillips, Rohit Chopra, Rebecca Slaughter, and Christine Wilson, Commissioners of the Federal Trade Commission - Brindisi Joins Family of Bianca Devins to Announce Major Push to Combat Violent & Graphic Content Across Social Media Platforms Like Facebook & Instagram

Letter

Dear Chairman Simons, Commissioner Phillips, Commissioner Chopra, Commissioner Slaughter, and Commissioner Wilson:

I write to bring your attention to a hometown tragedy and to urge immediate and accountable federal action as it relates to the murder of one of my constituents, seventeen-year-old Bianca Devins of Utica, New York.

Bianca was murdered on Sunday, July 14, 2019. The alleged perpetrator then posted extremely graphic and disturbing images of the crime on Instagram, as well as other social media platforms. These images remained visible for more than a week. Users report that when they attempted to flag the images as violating the platform's Community Guidelines (Instagram) or Community Standards (Facebook), they received messages that the content could remain up with a sensitive content warning, or that the images did not violate Instagram's Community Guidelines at all. This is unacceptable.

I have been in communication with the platforms and have heard about the mitigation steps they took to try and remove these images. I appreciate the work they are doing on a voluntary basis, but we simply must do better. These companies reach tens of millions of daily users in the United States, and they have a responsibility to prevent this kind of extremely graphic and disturbing content from ever making its way to consumers.

I am encouraging the FTC to use its authority under section 6(b) of the FTC Act to open a special probe into this case and the sensitive content practices of large social media platforms like Facebook and Instagram. Section 6(b) allows the FTC to produce "special reports" with the goal of protecting consumers. Bianca's family is clear: they do not want another family to ever have to experience what they have gone through these past few weeks. Only through a full accounting of what happened in this case can we make sure it does not happen again. I firmly believe an outside, transparent, and accountable investigation is needed in order to determine full compliance with the law. The FTC should then share the results with the public. With seven-in-ten Americans using social media today, there is no doubt that this type of investigation serves the public interest.

Thank you for your urgent attention to this matter. I look forward to your response.

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