As Facebook weathers an ongoing PR shitstorm composed of varied interlocking crises, a variety of public advocacy teams have launched an internet site that asks Americans to assist put the screws to the tech large.

Aptly referred to as HowToStopFacebook.Org, the web site accuses FB’s algorithms of “hurting our kids, undermining democracy in the U.S. and globally, and exacerbating discrimination.” Supported by teams like Fight for the Future, the Electronic Frontier Foundation, and dozens of others, the positioning references most of the speaking factors lately made by Frances Haugen, a former FB worker turned whistleblower who lately appeared on 60 Minutes after which in entrance of Congress to debate the methods wherein her former employer is hurting Americans—particularly children.

So how will we all, uh, cease that from taking place? The teams counsel that we depend on Congress to go a “real data privacy law”—one which makes it “illegal for companies like Facebook and YouTube to collect the massive amount of data they need to power their algorithms.” The web site supplies a signup sheet that offers guests the chance to point out their help for the initiative.

On its face, a federal knowledge privateness legislation is a good suggestion—and one thing individuals have been speaking about for awhile. However, such an endeavor isn’t precisely a easy course of and definitely not with out dangers. For one factor, the first cheerleaders for a federal privateness legislation over the previous few years have been giant tech companies—the very entities such a legislation can be designed to manage. Why? Privacy advocates argue that such a legislation would give companies the chance to do what they do finest: sic armies of lobbyists on Washington to co-opt laws and switch them of their favor.

But Congress has principally thrown up its hands and admitted it’s method too incompetent and corrupt to even try one thing like primary knowledge protections for the general public. Thus, privateness laws has been ceded to the states, the place many legislatures have tried—and often failed—to cobble collectively their very own laws. The passage of the California Consumer Privacy Act, or CCPA, in 2018, appeared to be an indication of hope, and has supplied a roadmap for different states, like Colorado and Virginia, to do the identical. A state-led method presents a way more difficult regulatory panorama for corporations like Facebook to navigate, and leaves the door open for doubtlessly extra radical laws—one thing good for shoppers however unhealthy for the tech trade.

Of course, a federal privateness legislation, had been it given actual regulatory tooth, might assist be sure that corporations like Facebook are correctly restrained and lower off from their extra noxious impulses. On the opposite hand, there’s no assure that such a legislation wouldn’t come out the opposite facet of our very imperfect legislative course of as defanged and ineffectual regulation, one which in the end legitimates unhealthy company conduct fairly than censuring it.