In his usual form, Last Week Tonight host John Oliver wasted no time in catching up with Twitter’s latest laughing stock. This time, it was Connecticut senator Richard Blumenthal.
Last week, a video clip of Blumenthal in a Senate hearing concerning Facebook and Instagram’s effects on teenagers’ mental health went viral showing the senior senator asking a Facebook safety executive if she was committed to “ending Finsta,” a portmanteau of fake and Instagram account. The executive replied the company does not actually provide a “Finsta” service and that users create fake accounts on their own accord. Blumenthal then asked if Facebook would commit to ending that type of account. The Facebook executive then responded she doesn’t fully understand the request.
Through generous deciphering, it seemed Blumenthal was asking if Facebook was committed to regulating the practice of creating fake accounts to avoid parental or community oversight, a habit the Senator believes is harmful to the mental health of teenagers.
Instead of dissecting the nuance of the complicated debate over Facebook’s safety policy, a company that ignored warnings of their products having negative effects of teenagers’ mental health according to a recent NYT exposé, Oliver joined the online bandwagon and claimed there was no way for the Facebook official to understand the senator’s “bizarre question.”
“What he asked made no sense,” Oliver said.
“Even Blumenthal’s aide seems aware of that as he visibly winced in pain immediately after hearing it,” Oliver added. “That’s the expression of someone who knows they’re going to have to stay late tonight explaining to their boss yet again what ‘Finsta’ is, but also what Twitter is, and why he’s currently getting roasted on it.”
Oliver once again demonstrates what he does best: turn a meaningful political conversation into comedic farce.