“You have a product that’s killing people”: Senate hearing goes on a soul-searching quest, Zuckerberg and fellow CEOs testify،
If you like the smell of napalm in the morning, you'll love this smell too: US senators grilled tech CEOs and Mark Zuckerberg in particular.
At a Senate hearing Wednesday, lawmakers discussed how social media platforms are failing to protect children from growing threats of sexual predation on their networks and urged Congress to pass legislation (via Reuters).
It's the latest effort by lawmakers to address concerns from parents and mental health experts that social media companies are prioritizing profits over the safety of their products for children.
The audience included Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Meta (Facebook, Instagram), Linda Yaccarino, CEO of X/Twitter, Evan Spiegel, CEO of Snap, Shou Zi Chew, CEO of TikTok and Jason Citron, CEO of Discord.
Senator Lindsey Graham directly confronted Zuckerberg, but didn't leave his colleagues behind either:
“Mr. Zuckerberg, you and the companies before us, I know you don't mean it, but you have blood on your hands,” said Senator Lindsey Graham and added: “You have a product that is killing people That last part is a bit ironic, considering one of Lindsey Graham's latest tweets, but let's not stray from the topic.
“This disturbing growth in child sexual exploitation is driven by one thing: technological changes,” Sen. Dick Durbin said at the hearing. Durbin, as Democratic chairman of the Judiciary Committee, cited statistics from the nonprofit group the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children that showed meteoric growth in financial “sextortion” — the malicious act in which a predator encourages a minor to send him explicit photos and videos.
At the start of the hearing, the commission played a video in which children talk about their victimization on social media.
“I was sexually exploited on Facebook,” a child said in the video, appearing in shadow.
Parents of children who have been harmed by social media were present at the Senate hearing. They held up photos of their children and some taunted Zuckerberg during his statement and interrupted him by shouting.
Zuckerberg expressed regret for what they had experienced and pledged to work to prevent this from happening to others, but did not take responsibility for facilitating the abuse.
