Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg stood to apologize to the families present at the Senate hearing, saying he was sorry for "the things that your families have suffered."
“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," he said as US Senate Judiciary Committee hearing, "Big Tech and the Online Child Sexual Exploitation Crisis," in Washington, DC, today (late night of Wednesday in BD).
From U.S. Senate Committee on the Judiciary In response, Missouri Republican Sen. Josh Hawley called on Zuckerberg, as a billionaire, to "compensate" the families whose children have been affected by his platforms.
The Senate Judiciary Committee is grilling the chief executives of five big tech companies, including Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, about potential harms from their products on teens.
The chief executives of social media companies, X, TikTok, Snap, and Discord faced tough questions on efforts to combat online child sexual exploitation at a US Senate hearing on Wednesday night.
Senator Dick Durbin, the Judiciary Committee's Democratic chairman, said some tech firms had made some recent changes to protect children from online predators but had not done enough. "It's clear that we need legislation because the tech industry has failed on its own to protect our kids. They're protecting their profits, but they're not protecting our children," Durbin said Tuesday.
It was the first appearance by TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew before US lawmakers since March when the Chinese-owned short video app company faced harsh questions, including some suggesting the app was damaging children's mental health.
Republican Sen. Ted Cruz slammed Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg for loose practices on Instagram-a platformed owned by Meta-that don't do much to protect children from explicit content.
He demonstrated an example of a warning screen that pops up when a user is searching for child abuse material, and noted that Instagram offers the user the choice between "get resources" or "see results anyway."
Social media companies have created products that have an upside, but they also have a dark side that is "too great to live with," Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham said Wednesday while grilling chief executives of four such companies.
Until social media companies are sued for the damage they are doing, Graham warned that there will be no change.
"I am tired of talking. I'm tired of having discussions," he said. "Open up the courthouse door. Until you do that, nothing will change. Until these people can be sued for the damage they're doing, it is all talk."
He added, "I'm a Republican who believes in free enterprise, but I also believe that every American who's been wronged has to have somebody to go to to complain. There is no commission to go to that can punish you. There's not one law in the book because you oppose everything we do, and you can't be sued. That has to stop, folks."
Graham stressed on the importance of having legal framework to hold the companies accountable. Source: CNN
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