Washington: In a stunning moment, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg on Wednesday apologised to families during a tense congressional hearing over alleged harm to children through social media. Zuckerberg's apology comes as US Senators grilled the CEOs of top social media and video streaming platforms like TikTok, X (formerly Twitter), Snap Inc and Discord for four hours on failing to protect children from online abuse.
"I'm sorry for everything you have all been through. No one should go through the things that your families have suffered and this is why we invest so much and we are going to continue doing industry-wide efforts to make sure no one has to go through the things your families have had to suffer," said Zuckerberg as families held up pictures of their children who have died following sexual harassment or exploitation via social media, the Guardian reported.
Evan Spiegel, the CEO of Snap Inc, offered similar apologies to parents after their children were reportedly able to access illegal drugs through Snapchat. Parents of more than 60 teens filed lawsuits against Snap last year for allegedly facilitating their children’s acquisitions of drugs that were used in overdoses. "I’m so sorry that we have not been able to prevent these tragedies. We work very hard to block all search terms related to drugs on our platform,” Spiegel said.
US lawmakers and advocates argued that tech companies are not doing enough to protect children from several issues youngsters deal with on social media, including sexual harassment, addictive features, self-harm and eating disorders, unrealistic beauty standards and bullying among others. Meta was the central focus of the hearing, as the California-based tech giant has been sued by dozens of states that say it knowingly and deliberately designed features on Instagram and Facebook that addict children to its platforms and failed to protect them from online predators.
'You have blood on your hands'
"They're responsible for many of the dangers our children face online. Their design choices, their failures to adequately invest in trust and safety, their constant pursuit of engagement and profit over basic safety have all put our kids and grandkids at risk," said US Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin, the chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee on online child safety, in his opening remarks.
Durbin cited statistics from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children nonprofit group that showed skyrocketing growth in financial "sextortion," in which a predator tricks a minor into sending explicit photos and videos. "This disturbing growth in child sexual exploitation is driven by one thing: changes in technology," he added.
The Senate was packed with families of children and advocates, as South Carolina Senator Lindsay Graham, the top Republican on the judiciary panel, echoed Durbin's statements and said he was prepared to work with the Democrats to resolve the issue. "After years of working on this issue with you and others, I've come to conclude the following: social media companies as they're currently designed and operate are dangerous products," Graham said.
The Republican Senator accused social media firms of "destroying lives, and threatening democracy itself". "I know you don’t mean it to be so, but you have blood on your hands," he told the five executives.
What did the executives say?
The executives touted existing safety tools on their platforms and the work they've done with nonprofits and law enforcement to protect minors. In prepared remarks, Zuckerberg stated that Meta had introduced more than 30 such tools over the last eight years, including controls that let parents set time limits for app usage and see who their children are following and engaging with online.
"Mr Zuckerberg, what the hell were you thinking?" said Senator Ted Cruz on a certain feature on Instagram that alerted users an image might show child sexual abuse, but still allowed them to see the image. Zuckerberg responded that it can be helpful to redirect users to resources rather than blocking content, adding the company would follow up with more information.
Snapchat had broken ranks ahead of the hearing and began backing a federal bill that would create a legal liability for apps and social platforms that recommend harmful content to minors. Spiegel reiterated the company's support on Wednesday and asked the industry to back the bill.
Linda Yaccarino, the CEO of X, said the platform does not cater to children. “We do not have a line of business dedicated to children,” she added. Yaccarino said the company supported the STOP CSAM Act, legislation introduced by Durbin that seeks to hold tech companies accountable for child sexual abuse material and would allow victims to sue tech platforms and app stores. X has come under criticism after Elon Musk loosened moderation policies, and recently the platform had to block searches for fake sexually explicit images of pop singer Taylor Swift.
In a tense exchange, the committee displayed copies of internal emails showing Zuckerberg rejecting a request by Meta's top policy executive to hire between 45 and 84 engineers to work on safety improvements. At one point, Senator Josh Hawley challenged Zuckerberg to apologize to them directly.
TikTok under fire for connections to China
Additionally, Tiktok CEO Shou Zi Chew marked his first appearance before US lawmakers since March last year, when the Chinese-owned short video streaming company faced harsh questions on damaging the mental health of children. He said TikTok is vigilant about enforcing its policy barring children under 13 from using the app and will spend $2 billion on trust and safety efforts.
Chew was grilled several times on the company's connection to China and the amount of access and influence the Chinese government gets through the platform. He said it was a "coincidence" that he was appointed CEO a day after the Chinese Communist Party bought a 1 per cent stake in the main Chinese subsidiary of ByteDance, TikTok's parent company, according to CNN.
Under questioning from Cruz, Chew also described the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre in Beijing as a "massive protest". In later testimony, he referred to Tiananmen Square as a massacre amid arguments that the platform does not allow content about the Chinese government's ruthless crackdown on pro-democracy activists on that day.
Chew and Zuckerberg had voluntarily agreed to testify before the Senate judiciary committee, but the heads of other three companies initially refused and were sent government-issued subpoenas, as lawmakers struggled to find new ways to protect minors from harm on social media platforms.
(with inputs from agencies)
ALSO READ | Facebook, Instagram, TikTok CEOs face tough questions on child safety online I Watch LIVE proceedings
