Internal communications reveal coordination with nonprofits to deflect criticism as harms to kids and teens continue

As Big Tech companies prepare to observe “Safer Internet Day” tomorrow, February 10th, The Tech Oversight Project released the following statement highlighting the gap between tech companies’ public safety commitments and their documented business practices:

“While parents and families are fighting 365 days a year to make the internet safer for our kids, Big Tech companies continue to say one thing and do the opposite. Parents across the country know that Big Tech companies cannot be trusted with kids’ safety. We want regulation, oversight, and public accountability – not more hollow P.R. attempts to spin away the pain families are experiencing,” said The Tech Oversight Project Executive Director Sacha Haworth.

This year’s U.S. Safer Internet Day events are funded by tech companies including Google, Snap, and Roblox, with executives from OpenAI, Google, Meta, and Snap scheduled to participate.

Internal TikTok correspondence from 2019 and 2020 shows employees coordinating Safer Internet Day events and messaging with the National PTA. One TikTok employee wrote of the National PTA: “They’ll also do whatever we want … they’ll announce things publicly. Their CEO will do press statements for us.”

Another employee described ConnectSafely’s CEO – whose organization sponsors Safer Internet Day – as “a good shield for us going forward,” able to “serve as a public advocate for [TikTok] in the face of all the criticism.”

The documents, part of federal multidistrict litigation, shed light on lucrative partnerships between tech platforms and nonprofit organizations that advocate on their behalf. As multiple cases examining tech platforms’ impact on youth mental health and safety go to trial, the evidence reveals a coordinated strategy to use trusted messengers to deflect criticism while Big Tech companies’ business practices remain unchanged.