Autoplay Videos And Infinite Scroll May Become Illegal

Technology is often said to manipulate people and affect their health negatively, which is not a revelatory take. In fact, it is the one which lawmakers are becoming more and more entwined with. The new bill, SMART or Social Media Addiction Reduction Technology on Tue by Senator, wants to impede social platforms from exploiting people.

The bill would:

Included in the bill are several design features which are common these days, such as infinite scroll or awards which only rewards users for engaging with the feature and do not provide any other benefits, and loading or autoplaying additional content which is not a service’s function or something permitted explicitly by users. Also, the bill states icons to decline or accept specific agreements should have the same shape, size, font or other auditory or visual design.

It seems that badges, autoplay, and infinite scroll are lynchpins for several social networks that people have known and loved or got hooked on, as argued by ethical technologists. The bill would strip the social networks of addictive design features like these and also instant gratification features in an effective way so as to minimize the psychological toll believed to be taking on users.

Last month, in a Senate hearing, Center for Humane Technology executive director Tristan Harris described the ways in which some platforms like these are controlling people.

During the Senate hearing, he said:

He added:

Nevertheless, the bill does not just eradicate some user interface practices which social networks are using to manipulate users. It also claims that after six months since the day the bill takes effect, it is unlawful for such firms to prevent users from limiting how much time they spend on platforms and to not give users routine reports as well as notifications of the total of time they've spent on a platform across their devices.

Moreover, these companies have to set an automatic limit of 30 minutes/day for users on their platforms unless they opt-out or extend the limit. The time limit will be reset every month.

It is not inherently bad when users can now voluntarily limit the amount of time spent on specific platforms and know more clearly about the amount of time dedicated to them. Actually, it may be good for some users to push the limits of time or force-feed reports on engagement onto users, which is relatively aggressive.

Making it illegal for these companies to not begin this kind of relationship with users is more than just simply mitigating the manipulative design practices. Doing this is controlling, particularly to not make it opt-in but opt-out. It seems that the purpose is making users feel guilty about being online less often instead of allowing them to choose that at will, as the bill intends purportedly.

Perhaps, it isn’t totally shocking when the Republican Senator who represents Missouri makes an embarrassing résumé regarding the deep misunderstanding about the way the Internet works. Misguided perception like this is also evident in other recent legislation of Hawley regarding social networks and his public display of misunderstanding a law which is relevant to internet speech.

Stronger legislation would stop social media platforms from preying expertly on their users’ psyche for money. Therefore, this would be a pleasant change for people having concern over enjoying the splendors on digital platforms without the need of sacrificing their own free will.