Lawmakers have started comparing social media giant Facebook to Big Tobacco, one of the most criticized group of brand advocates in America, which the vice president of global affairs for Facebook, Nick Clegg, believes is "extremely misleading."
Clegg said on ABC's "This Week" that he is worried about the comparisons between his company and the tobacco industry.
"Well, I think it's extremely misleading analogy. Of course, we're not," Clegg said.
Clegg went on to say Facebook, unlike tobacco, brings people together.
"We're a social media app that many, many people around the world use because it brings utility, it helps small businesses, it brings joy, it brings pleasure, it connects to you with people you care and love the most," he said. "That's what Facebook is about."
Comparisons to the tobacco giants came from Senator Richard Blumental, who said during a hearing late last month that Facebook was taking a page out of "big tobacco's playbook.
He said he based that on the addictiveness of the platform and how it can impact human health.
"It has hidden its own research on addiction and the toxic effects of its products. It has attempted to deceive the public and us in Congress about what it knows, and it has weaponized childhood vulnerabilities against children themselves," Blumenthal said at the time.
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Senator Ed Markey agreed with Blumenthal during the hearing, giving his own opinions, CNBC reported.
"Instagram is that first childhood cigarette meant to get teens hooked early, exploiting the peer pressure of popularity and ultimately endangering their health," Markey said in the hearing.
Within the last week, several reports have come out about Facebook, including an interview from "60 Minutes" with a whistleblower, Frances Haugen, who said she believes the social media site is dangerous.
Haugen also testified against the company, saying that it had put its own interests ahead of public safety on multiple occasions.
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Haugen also shared in a tweet that she has been invited to work with Facebook to tell them what she learned while working there.
Despite this, Clegg shared on Sunday that the comparisons in the media are blown out of proportion.
"I think if there's any silver lining to this week is that maybe we can now move beyond the slogans, the sound bites, the simplistic caricatures and actually look at solutions and, yes -- and, of course, regulation," he said.
