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Senator Lambie fires at tech giant Meta and warns of youth addiction

Senator Jacqui Lambie has blasted global technology giants, like Meta, labelling them “bloody thugs” and warning of dangerous addictions among children.

Senator Jacqui Lambie under fire

Jacqui Lambie has taken a swing at global technology giants, like Meta, calling them “bloody thugs”.

Appearing on the ABC’s Q&A program on Monday night, the outspoken Tasmanian senator blasted Meta and companies like it.

“They’re bloody thugs,” Senator Lambie said.

“They’re like the banks. Let’s be honest, they’ve got way too much power.

“I’ve got kids out there that are highly addicted to this sort of stuff and it is getting worse.

“It needs to be shut down – the misinformation – especially you see that going on around political elections, things like that.

“This has got to be stopped – these guys need to be fined or stand up to them and say get out.”

Jacqui Lambie has taken a swing st global technology giants. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Martin Ollman
Jacqui Lambie has taken a swing st global technology giants. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Martin Ollman

Speaking to the effects of technology addiction among youths, Senator Lambie passionately argued the need for intervention and said schools needed to ban phones.

“That would give them a good eight hours off for the day, that would be a good start,” she said.

“Parents out there are worried about alcohol and drug abuse ... I tell you what, watch your kids with tech because they are getting addicted.

“They’re staying up late at night time, they’re not going to school.”

Senator Lambie said it was no different to people coming off drugs or alcohol.

“They are putting holes in walls, the same as drugs and alcohol, they are hitting their parents,” she said.

“This is the addiction. This is tech addiction. This is real. This is what it’s doing to these young kids.”

Ed Husic, Minister for Industry and Science, said world governments were taking the power of tech giants and artifical intelligence seriously.

“I went to this AI safety summit in London back in November — 30 countries there,” he said.

“It was the first time countries had actually taken seriously the need to look at what’s got to be done around AI, particularly because not just because of the tech but what it does in determining the wealth of companies, and the influence of those companies as well.”

He said Meta was “trying to effectively thug the situation around the news media bargaining code”.

Senator Jacqui Lambie has warned kids are addicted to technology. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Martin Ollman
Senator Jacqui Lambie has warned kids are addicted to technology. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Martin Ollman

Yanis Varoufakis, former Minister of Finance of Greece, said an abundance of technology was also causing “the death of the individual”.

“The algorithm itself is not the problem, but an algorithm that has been created in order to create hatred and addiction, that is a problem,” he said.

“It is a question of property rights — who owns the algorithm?

“Looking at my daughter when she was 16, 17, I could see that subconsciously she and her friends were very worried about what they were uploading on TikTok, on Snapchat and all that because they knew.

“Deep down subconsciously that one day when they go for a job interview, some bot or maybe a person or a person that resembles a bot, is going to interview them after having checked all their online history, so there is no separation like we used to have between work and play, between messing around and doing things that will come to haunt you during job interviews.

“That, for me, is just a machine creating angst amongst the young regarding their future and that is something we should tackle.”

Originally published as Senator Lambie fires at tech giant Meta and warns of youth addiction

Original URL: https://www.themercury.com.au/technology/online/senator-lambie-fires-at-tech-giant-meta-and-warns-of-youth-addiction/news-story/7c4b26b15c3ceac10f363d8e71edd3f5