Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., said Thursday that lawmakers must learn "a lot more" about the technology they legislate following hearings with Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg.
"These hearings this week have been with the CEO, but of only one company, and predominantly focused on privacy issues," he told CNET, adding that he hopes to discuss other technological issues.
"If the hope is that these platforms can be a force for good and bring people together -- but the way this business model is operating is having an effect of dividing us -- then that's something we need to think about," he said.
"The questions is; what obligation do the social media companies think they should take on?"
When asked if Silicon Valley should become more regulated, Schiff answered that "there's certainly a strong case to be made for regulation of some kind," but that "it's probably very early still to be prescribing our regulation before we understand exactly how these platforms work.
"As you can see in the Senate, there was a lot of lack of knowledge from time to time about how these technologies even work. And I think we need to know a lot more before we say this is the regulation we even need."
The congressman then said that Congress can solve this issue by "doing our homework, and that begins with oversight. Silicon Valley and social media are not the only complicated issues that we deal with here.
"There are any number of very difficult, complex, telecommunications issues which we've had to wrestle to the ground here. Sometimes with more success than others."
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