Mark Zuckerberg, TikTok and X CEOs grilled over failure to stop child exploitation at hearing: ‘You have blood on your hands’
Mark Zuckerberg got grilled during a fiery Senate hearing on online child sex abuse – with one lawmaker declaring that he has “blood on his hands” and another decrying a surge of “financial sextortion” of kids who use social media apps.
The billionaire boss of Meta, which faces multiple lawsuits over allegedly exposing younger users to harm on Facebook and Instagram, was repeatedly singled out on Wednesday by members of the Senate Judiciary Committee on the hot-button subject.
“Mr. Zuckerberg, you and the companies before us – I know you don’t mean for it to be so – but you have blood on your hands,” said Sen. Lindsey Graham said. “You have a product that’s killing people.”
In a rare show of bipartisan unity, the Senate panel’s members expressed support for a handful of bills aimed at stopping sex- and drug-related abuse on online platforms – and ripped the executives in the room for their inaction.
The panel’s Democratic chairman, Sen. Dick Durbin, called the situation as a “crisis in America.”
He highlighted disturbing episodes in which children had fallen victim to “financial sextortion,” in which criminals tricked them into sending explicit videos and threatened to release them unless the victims sent money.
“Their constant pursuit of engagement and profit over basic safety of all put our kids and grandkids at risk,” Durbin said.
Durbin also blasted some of the tech CEOs over a cynical effort to update safety policies just days before the executives would have to “justify their lack of action to this committee.”
In another tense moment, Republican Sen. Ted Cruz rebuked Zuckerberg for instances in which Instagram displayed a warning screen alerting users that they might be interacting with images of child sex abuse – but let them access the content anyway.
“Mr. Zuckerberg, what the hell were you thinking?” Cruz said.
Graham, the panel’s ranking Republican member called for the repeal of Section 230, which protects social media firms from liability, so that sex abuse victims could hold companies legally accountable.
Zuckerberg and the top bosses from TikTok, Snap, X and Discord were grilled in a packed room in Washington that included parents and family members who silently held up photos of victims of online child sex exploitation.
The hearing began with a short reel of victims and their parents discussing their tragic experiences – with one declaring that “Big Tech failed to protect me.”
“I was sexually exploited on Facebook,” said one child in the video, who appeared in shadow.
In the hearing room, dozens of parents stood waiting for the CEOs to enter, holding pictures of their children.
Snap CEO Evan Spiegel, Discord CEO Jason Citron and X CEO Linda Yaccarino, were issued subpoenas to compel their appearance, while Zuckerberg and Chew appeared voluntarily.
Zuckerberg sought to highlight Meta’s efforts to address concerns, including more than $20 billion in safety and security spending since 2016.
“Overall, teens tell us that this is a positive part of their lives, but some face challenges online, so we work hard to provide parents and teens support and controls to reduce potential harms,” Zuckerberg said.
During one charged moment at the hearing, Graham asked Zuckerberg what he would say to to the family of South Carolina Rep. Brandon Guffey, whose son died by suicide after being sexually extorted on Instagram.
“It’s terrible,” Zuckerberg said. “No one should have to do something like that.”
Chew, who was grilled over China-owned TikTok’s ties to the Chinese government through its parent company ByteDance, said his company has spent more than $2 billion this year alone on “trust and safety efforts” and tapped 40,000 employees to work on the issue.
“We make careful product design choices to help make our app inhospitable to those seeking to harm teens,” Chew said in prepared remarks at the start of the hearing.
X’s Yaccarino pointed to the company’s support the STOP CSAM Act, which would allow online child sex abuse victims to sue social media platforms and app stores.
With Post wires
