The top federal prosecutor in Albany on Monday said he was considering a lawsuit that would force telecommunications and social media companies to use algorithms to monitor users’ conversations for sexual predation.
Interim U.S. Attorney John A. Sarcone III said he has been stunned by cases of sexual exploitation of children and pledged to do everything in his power to stop it. He said that since the advent of the internet, sexual exploitation cases have exploded, including in the Northern District of New York.
“This has got to really come to some kind of a head, and the only way to do that is to drag one of these big companies into federal court, let them fight it and be humiliated publicly throughout that whole experience until they do something about it,” Sarcone said at a news conference.
Sarcone, who has not previously worked as a prosecutor, was appointed to his position by U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi and has served since March 17. His proposal may come into conflict with Constitutional protections, including the Fourth Amendment’s limitations on search and seizure and the First Amendment’s guarantee of free speech rights, legal experts said.
Sarcone made the remarks at a press conference with FBI officials to announce the arrest of a 20-year-old California man who was charged last week with sexual exploitation of a child. Officials said the man exchanged explicit text messages with a teenager from Rensselaer County, New York whom he met on a dating app.
Sarcone read several text messages from the lectern, including sexually explicit requests the man allegedly made of the teenager.
“Algorithms can pick that up,” Sarcone said. “It may cost them billions of dollars to do, but I intend to force them to do it.”
Sarcone said he would direct his associates to research ways to bring a civil case against telecommunications companies, mentioning AT&T and Verizon. He noted that many previous efforts by Congress to regulate youth use of social media haven’t resulted in legislative action.
“Civilly, there should be a way to bring them to their knees,” Sarcone said, referring to telecommunications carriers and social media companies. He argued that Congress had had little regulatory success because of the industry’s ability to employ powerful lawyers and lobbyists.
“How are they going to pass legislation with all the billions of lobbyists? Take those billions and put the algorithms in to weed out this type of speech,” Sarcone said. “It’s not that hard.”
Justin Harrison, senior policy counsel for the New York Civil Liberties Union, said a proposal like what Sarcone was suggesting would be difficult to implement.
“The U.S. attorney can speculate and say, ‘We’re going to make big tech do that,’” said Justin Harrison, senior policy counsel for the New York Civil Liberties Union. “But until we see a proposal, it’s all just bluster because there are very serious privacy, Fourth Amendment and First Amendment problems. And there are huge technology problems with this, too.”
Sarcone is just over a month into his tenure as interim U.S. attorney, which is capped at 120 days. To serve beyond that term, he would have to be nominated and confirmed to the permanent position.
President Donald Trump has yet to nominate a prosecutor for the office, which covers counties in northeastern New York and the upper Hudson Valley including Kingston, Albany, Plattsburgh, Utica and Syracuse.
A presidential nominee is subject to U.S. Senate confirmation.
