1. United States
2. Wash.
3. Letter

I am writing to request stricter regulation on tech companies, their use of AI, and our ability as consumers to opt out of these harmful technologies. Two weeks ago, Meta announced a sweeping new TOS (terms of service) that would basically give them blanket permission to crawl professional Instagram / Facebook accounts *and any linked websites* to train their AI. This puts small businesses and artists at risk of having their work stolen, as well as other organizations, like schools and PTAs who post pictures of their students, at risk of having those students' likenesses stolen and used for malicious purposes. People are tired of being abused by the tech oligarchy. They need to be held accountable for the way they design these addictive systems, and then use that as psychological warfare to extract data from their consumers. Our peers in Europe are able to opt out of Meta's new AI policies because of their laws around tech regulation. The US - home of this technology - should be at the forefront of these consumer protections. Please work to enact similar laws to protect your constituents from this technological abuse.