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Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg apologized to families who say their children have been harmed by social media during a heated US Senate hearing.
Zuckerberg, who runs Instagram and Facebook, turned to them and told them that “no one should go through” what they had.
He and the heads of TikTok, Snap, X and Discord were questioned for nearly four hours by senators from both parties.
Lawmakers wanted to know what they are doing to protect children online.
Legislation is currently moving through Congress that aims to hold social media companies accountable for material posted on their platforms.
Wednesday’s hearing was a rare opportunity for US senators to question tech bosses.
Zuckerberg and TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew voluntarily agreed to testify, but the directors of Snap,
Behind the five tech bosses sat families who said their children had self-harmed or committed suicide as a result of social media content.
They expressed their feelings throughout, whistling when the CEOs entered and applauding when lawmakers asked tough questions.
While the hearing focused primarily on protecting children from online sexual exploitation, questions ranged widely as senators took advantage of the presence of five powerful executives under oath.
The CEO of TikTok, which is owned by the Chinese company ByteDance, Mr Chew was asked if his company shared US users’ data with the Chinese government, which he denied.
US Senator Tom Cotton asked Mr Chew, who is from Singapore, if he had ever belonged to the Chinese Communist Party.
“Senator, I am from Singapore. No,” Mr Chew replied.
Mr. Cotton then asked, “Have you ever been associated with or affiliated with the Chinese Communist Party?”
Chew replied: “No, Senator. Again, I am a Singaporean.”
He added that, as a father of three young children, he knew the issues under discussion were “horrible and every parent’s nightmare.”
He admitted that his own children did not use TikTok due to Singapore rules that prohibit those under 13 from creating accounts.
But it was Zuckerberg, CEO of Meta, who came under the most scrutiny, as he testified before Congress for the eighth time.
At one point, Republican Senator Ted Cruz asked, “Mr. Zuckerberg, what the hell were you thinking?” when he showed the tech chief an Instagram notice that warns users that they may be about to see child sexual abuse material, but asks if they would like to “see the results anyway.”
Zuckerberg said that “the basic science behind this” is that “often it’s helpful, instead of just blocking it, to help direct them toward something that might be helpful.” He also promised to “investigate it personally.”
During another exchange with Republican Senator Josh Hawley, Zuckerberg was invited to apologize to the families sitting behind him.
He stood up, turned to the audience and said: “I’m sorry for everything you’ve been through, it’s terrible.
“No one should have to go through the things their families have suffered.”
Senators frustrated by lack of progress
At the center of the hearing were companies’ attitudes toward online safety legislation currently before Congress.
This came down to a tense exchange between Discord’s Jason Citron and Republican lawmaker Lindsey Graham.
Graham listed a number of bills moving through Congress related to online security and asked whether Citron supported them or not.
While Graham gave Citron little opportunity to respond, the Discord boss seemed to have reservations about most of them.
Graham concluded: “So here it is: if you’re waiting for these guys to solve the problem, we’ll die waiting.”
Before the hearing, Meta had announced new security measuresincluding that minors will now, by default, not be able to receive messages on Instagram and Messenger from strangers.
Social media industry analyst Matt Navarra told the BBC he thought the hearing resembled many similar confrontations, with “a lot of American political bombast” and a perfect photo opportunity provided by Zuckerberg’s apology.
He added that even though senators agreed on the need for bipartisan legislation to regulate the platforms, the question of what happens next remains unclear.
“We’ve seen these hearings over and over again and often, so far, they haven’t generated any meaningful or substantial regulation,” he said.
“It’s 2024 and the United States has virtually no regulation, as noted during the hearings, regarding social media companies.”
Bosses also revealed how many people they employed to moderate content on their platforms.
Meta and TikTok, with the largest number of users of the platforms represented, said they had 40,000 moderators each, while Snap said it had 2,300, X had 2,000, and Discord, which said it was smaller, had “hundreds” of moderators. .
Discord is a messaging platform and has previously been questioned about how it detects and prevents child abuse on its platform.
After the hearing, some of the parents in the room organized a demonstration outside, with several calling on lawmakers to urgently pass legislation to hold companies accountable.
“Like me, many parents still think that these harms we’re talking about today won’t affect their families,” said Joann Bogard, whose son Mason died in May 2019. She said she had participated in a TikTok. tendency to suffocation.
“These harms are happening overnight to our average children,” he said. “We have the testimonies. Now is the time for our legislators to approve the Child Online Safety Law“.
Arturo Bejar, a former senior staff member who testified before Congress In November 2023, he was also there and told the BBC: “Meta is trying to convey to parents their responsibility to provide a safe environment for teenagers, but they will not add a button where a teenager can tell them that they have experienced an experience.” Unwanted”. Advance.”
“How can they make it safe for teenagers without that?”
During today’s hearing, Meta said it had incorporated “more than 30 tools” to support a safe environment for teens online.
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