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Salesforce CEO: Regulate Social Media Companies Like Cigarettes

"There is some regulation but there probably will have to be more," he said about the technology industry

Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff suggested Tuesday that the government should step in to regulate Facebook and other social media companies the same way the government regulates tobacco companies.

"Here's a product: Cigarettes. They're addictive, they're not good for you," Benioff told CNBC while in Davos, Switzerland, after referencing Russian election interference. "I think that for sure, technology has addictive qualities that we have to address, and that product designers are working to make those products more addictive and we need to rein that back."

He said that there is a smoking age for cigarettes and regulations on how to promote them, but no such rules exist for social media.

"There is some regulation but there probably will have to be more," he said about the technology industry.

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