The chief executives of five major social media companies appeared before senators Wednesday for a highly anticipated hearing on the harms children and teens face online.
Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, X CEO Linda Yaccarino, TikTok CEO Shou Chew, Snap CEO Evan Spiegel and Discord CEO Jason Citron testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee for a Wednesday hearing entitled “Big Tech and the Online Child Sexual Exploitation Crisis.”
The hearing focused on the prevalence on sexual exploitation on social media, what tech CEOs were doing to fight it and growing rage among parents over a lack of federal action.
Here are the highlights from the contentious hearing.
In final remarks before ending the Wednesday hearing, Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) told Zuckerberg his stance on mental health and social media “makes no sense” and urged him to listen to parent-activists.
Durbin told Zuckerberg that his citation of research casting doubt on links between youth mental health and social media use did not square with the experiences of parents who saw their children suffer anxiety, depression and alientation from friends.
“I don’t think it makes any sense,” Durbin said. “These are mental health consquences.”
Sen. Jon Ossoff (D-Ga.) described the internet and social media platforms as a “dangerous place for children.”
“There are families here who have lost their children,” Ossoff said. “There are families across the country whose children have engaged in self harm, who have experienced low self esteem, who have been sold deadly pills on the internet.”
“The internet is a dangerous place for children, and your platforms are dangerous places for children,” he added.
Youth advocates stood throughout the rows of seats at the crowded hearing wearing T-shirts that say “I’m worth more” when Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) referenced documents revealing internal Meta communication that suggested young users’ lifetime value is roughly $270 billion.
Blackburn urged the CEOs to look at at the teens standing behind them.
“Children are not your priority; children are your product,” she said.
Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) asked TikTok CEO Shou Chew, a Singaporean businessman, whether he is a member of the Chinese Communist Party.
“Have you ever been a member of the Chinese Communist Party?” Cotton asked.
“Senator, I’m Singaporean, no,” Chew responded.
“Have you ever been associated with or affiliated with the Chinese Community Party?” Cotton continued.
“No, senator, again, I’m Singaporean,” the TikTok CEO said.
Chew and TikTok have faced bipartisan political blowback over the app’s parent company, China-based ByteDance, and its connections to the Chinese government.
Chew, however, is not Chinese and lives in his birth country of Singapore.
As the Arkansas Republican pressed Chew for his thoughts on China’s treatment of the Uyghur people and President Biden’s characterization of Chinese leader Xi Jinping as a “dictator,” the TikTok CEO said it was not appropriate for him to comment on world leaders.
However, Cotton suggested that Chew might be declining to answer out of fear.
“Why won’t you answer these very simple questions?” Cotton said. “Are you scared?”
“Are you scared that you’ll lose your job if you say anything negative about the Chinese Communist Party? Are you scared that you’ll be arrested and disappear the next time you go to mainland China?”
Lawmakers have announced there will be a 10 minute break.
Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) grilled Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg about a warning that appears on some Instagram searches, cautioning users that the search results may contain images of child sexual abuse.
Cruz noted that the warning gives users option to get resources or see results anyway.
“Mr. Zuckerberg, what the hell were you thinking?” Cruz said.
“All right, senator,” the Meta CEO responded. “The basic science behind that is that when people are searching for something that is problematic, it’s often helpful to rather than just blocking it to help direct them towards something that could be helpful for getting them to get help.”
“I understand ‘Get resources.’ In what universe is there a link for ‘See Results Anyway’?” Cruz added.
“Well, because we might be wrong,” Zuckerberg said.
After a searing reprimand from Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.), Zuckerberg turned to parents of children who have died after or were seriously harmed by suffering abuse through social media.
The Meta CEO stood from behind his microphone to apologize and insist that the company was making “industry-leading” efforts to protect children and teenagers.
Hawley had blasted Zuckerburg for doing nothing to compensate the families of victims and urged him to apologize on live TV.
“Your product is killing people,” Hawley said.
Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) slammed social media companies at Wednesday’s hearing for their apparent failures to regulate themselves.
“We are here in this hearing because as a collective, your platforms really suck at policing themselves,” Whitehouse said.
“We hear about it here in Congress with fentanyl and other drug dealing facilitated across platforms,” he continued. “We see it and hear about it here in Congress with harassment and bullying that takes place across your platforms.”
“We see it and hear about it here in Congress with respect to child pornography, sexploitation and blackmail,” Whitehouse added. “And we are sick of it.”
Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) pressed Zuckerberg over the prevalence of sexually explicit content on Meta’s platforms that is viewable by minors.
Lee asked if Meta’s ban of the content includes for users aged 16 and 17, as well as younger teens.
“Senator, my understanding is that we don’t allow sexually epxlicit content on the service for people of any age,” Zuckerberg said.
“How is that going?” Lee asked, prompting laughs and applause in the hearing room.
Zuckerberg said Meta’s efforts are not perfect but are leading the industry.
Zuckerberg said app stores — specifically, Meta rivals Apple and Google, which run dominant app markets — should be responsible for verifying the ages of users and have parents give consent for youth users to help mitigate issues like child sexual exploration and other harms.
The Meta CEO said doing so would limit parents from having to confirm a child’s age or approve use within each single app, and that the app stores already require parental consent for payments.
Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) said it should not be parents’ responsibility to control what their children are able to see and keep up with what the company updates.
Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) fumed over the lack of legal accountability for major social media companies.
“Go to the American courtroom and defend your practices,” Graham 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.”
“I’m a Republican who believes in free enterprise, but I also believe that American who’s been wronged has to have somebody to go to to complain,” he continued. “There’s no commission to go to that can punish you. There’s not one law in the books because you oppose everything we do. And you can’t be sued.”
“That has to stop, folks,” Graham said, adding, “For all the upside, the dark side is too great to live with. We do not need to live this way as Americans.”
TikTok CEO Shou Chew pushed back on a line of questioning from Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.).
“Why is TikTok allowing children to be exploited into performing commercialized sex?” Durbin asked.
“Senator, I respectfully disagree with that characterization,” Chew said.
“Our livestreaming product is not for anyone below the age of 18. We have taken action to identify anyone who violates that, and we remove them from using that service.”
Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) pressed TikTok’s CEO on how much money the company earned in an attempt to put in perspective what percent of earnings the company is putting toward safety efforts.
Chew said the company is not ready to share publicly but reiterated $2 billion was invested in safety features.
Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) praised Yaccarino for backing the STOP CSAM Act, which would let victims of child online sexual abuse material sue tech companies that host it.
The bill would amend Section 230 to allow victims of child sexual abuse material to sue tech companies for content posted by third parties. Yaccarino’s endorsement made X the first company of those testifying to back the bill, Durbin said.
Yaccarino, in her first appearance testifying as the CEO of the company formerly known as Twitter, aimed to set the platform apart as a new entity — and one not used by children.
“X is an entirely new company,” she said.
Yaccarino, who was appointed as CEO in May as part of the changes to the company since it was bought by Elon Musk, said the panel has her personal commitment that the company will be active in conversations about mitigating risks.
She also set the company apart from others appearing as having less than 1 percent of U.S. users between the ages of 13 and 17.