The CEOs of five major social media platforms — Linda Yaccarino of X, Jason Citron of Discord, Mark Zuckerberg of Meta, Evan Spiegel of Snap Inc. and Shou Chew of TikTok — testified on Wednesday before a congressional committee hearing intended to address the “child sexual exploitation crisis” occurring on their platforms.
Three of the chief executives — Yaccarino, Spiegel and Citron — had to be subpoenaed before agreeing to testify. Zuckerberg and Chew agreed to testify voluntarily.
This marked Zuckerberg’s eighth appearance before Congress.
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Hours before the hearing began, lawmakers released 90 pages of internal emails between Meta officials from 2021, a key part of a lawsuit filed last year by a bipartisan coalition of state attorneys general that accused Meta of engaging in a scheme to exploit and manipulate younger users.
One documented incident reveals a request by Nick Clegg, Meta’s president of global affairs, for more staff which he said would help Meta “stand behind our external narrative of well-being on our apps.”
Zuckerberg rejected the request.
During the nearly four-hour-long hearing, lawmakers lambasted the CEOs for the child exploitation and harassment that has occurred on their platforms, and attempted to determine whether they were in support of a number of bills meant to protect kids online.
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Senator: ‘You have blood on your hands’
“Mr. Zuckerberg, you and the companies before us, I know you don’t mean it to be so, but you have blood on your hands,” Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-South Carolina) said. “You have a product that’s killing people.”
The hearing was attended by dozens of parents and family members holding photos of their children who they said were harmed by social media.
Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Missouri) prompted Zuckerberg to apologize directly to the group of assembled parents, during which he touted the “industry-wide” efforts Meta is undertaking to “make sure no one has to go through the things your families have had to suffer.”
In one exchange, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) showed an Instagram warning screen that informed users that an image “may contain” child sexual abuse material, but allowed users to view the image regardless.
Mark Zuckerberg, on behalf of his products, primarily Instagram and Facebook, faces the full Senate Judiciary Cmte now along with four other CEOs (three under subpoena) for harming children. This is how it has begun, “Mr Zuckerberg…you have blood on your hands. /1 pic.twitter.com/Dxb99t11Ds
— Jason Kint (@jason_kint) January 31, 2024
“Mr. Zuckerberg, what the hell were you thinking? In what sane universe is there a link for ‘see results anyway?'” Cruz said.
Zuckerberg, who later said that the “bulk of scientific evidence” does not support a link between mental health and social media use, told Cruz that Meta believed it would be better to redirect users to additional resources than block content outright.
Meta’s own research, highlighted by Hawley, said in 2021 that “we make body image issues worse for one in three teen girls” that the company surveyed.
The coalition’s lawsuit, meanwhile, claims that in an effort to maximize user engagement — and therefore profits — Meta has harmed the mental and physical health of its young users.
A separate lawsuit, filed by the state of New Mexico against Meta, claims that Meta knew its limited blocking of child sexual abuse material (CSAM) was inadequate. The suit references a 2021 internal presentation in which Meta estimated that 100,000 children per day “received online sexual harassment, such as pictures of adult genitalia.”
“When a Boeing plane lost a door in mid-flight several weeks ago, nobody questioned the decision to ground a fleet of over 700 planes,” Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minnesota) said during the hearing. “So why aren’t we taking the same type of decisive action on the danger of these platforms when we know these kids are dying?”
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This latest hearing is a ‘turning point’
Frances Haugen, the data scientist who in 2021 turned whistleblower against Meta, told CNBC that, corporate speak or not, Zuckerberg’s apology, and the hearing on the whole, feels different than previous hearings.
“That apology is a turning point because it’s the first time (Zuckerberg) had to actually visibly face the consequences of his choices,” Haugen said, calling it a “powerful” moment.
Five tech CEOs testified Wednesday before a congressional hearing on child exploitation on their platforms.
That, combined with the public release of the internal documents that showed Zuckerberg’s efforts to hinder Meta’s attempts to protect children, according to Haugen, marks a “huge difference compared to what happened in the past.”
“Mark had to confront today that he said those things, he did those actions, and now everyone knows,” she said.
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KOSA isn’t what it seems
Numerous bipartisan bills were mentioned during the hearing, namely the Stop CSAM Act — designed to increase the transparency and accountability of these platforms, while making it easier for victims of online sexual assault to sue the tech companies — and the Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA), which would require platforms to take “reasonable measures” to protect minors from a long list of potential harms.
When pressed by lawmakers, Yaccarino and Spiegel were the only ones supportive of KOSA, while Zuckerberg, Chew and Citron did not provide a straight comment on the bill.
But social media researcher Danah Boyd said KOSA and similar efforts by Congress over-simplify the issue, while simultaneously coming to the wrong conclusion.
“Bills like KOSA don’t just presume that tech caused the problems youth are facing; they presume that if tech companies were just forced to design better, they could fix the problems,” she said in a post Wednesday, calling it a “fatally flawed approach to addressing systemic issues.”
Zuckerberg, after prompting, stood and apologized directly to the parents of children who have been harmed by social media.
Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images
Boyd suggested that if lawmakers really cared about helping children, they should center the problem around the children, rather than around technology; investing in mental health services for kids, working to combat climate change to reduce climate anxiety, protecting kids from gun violence and ensuring the protection of reproductive rights for women would all, according to Boyd, help address the fundamental sources of depression and anxiety plaguing young people.
“What irks me is not the idea that tech should be regulated, but the tendency by politicians to (ab)use children in their pursuit of regulating tech,” Boyd said.
“By all means, go after Big Tech. Regulate advertising. Create data privacy laws. Hold tech accountable for its failure to be interoperable,” she said. “But for the love of the next generation, don’t pretend that it’s going to help vulnerable youth. And when the problem is sociotechnical in nature, don’t expect corporations to be able to solve it.”
Contact Ian with AI stories via email, [email protected], or Signal 732-804-1223.
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