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WASHINGTON, DC – JANUARY 31: Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Meta, arrives to testify during a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing at the Dirksen Senate Office Building on January 31, 2024 in Washington, DC. The committee heard testimony from the heads of the largest tech firms on the dangers of child sexual exploitation on social media. (Photo by Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images)
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Petty, pointed questioning ate up too much precious time
Five social media CEOs were swear in on Wednesday for what could have been the most eventful children ’s online safety earreach yet . But even with some of tech ’s most potent figures under curse word , the four - hour hearing was anti - climactic .
The Senate subpoena recently appointed ten CEO Linda Yaccarino , Discord ’s Jason Citron and Snap ’s Evan Spiegel to appear before the Senate Judiciary Committee , but Meta founder Mark Zuckerberg and TikTok ’s Shou Chew agreed to look without the scourge of legal consequence . Yaccarino , Citron and Spiegel all testify for the first time , whileChew faced the committeelast year . But for Zuckerberg , this hearing was his eighth rodeo , and it was n’t an easy one .
These CEOs for sure have a lot to answer for . Chat - based platforms Snap and Discord have come under flame for facilitatingsextortioncrimes and lethaldrug dealing , while Meta has been implicate in alaundry listof high - stakes scandals regarding the mental wellness of stripling on its platforms . Meanwhile , TikTok ’s algorithmic feed has been found to surface content link up toself - harm and suicide , and X has become abreeding groundfor lily-white domination and extremism .
Some senators remarked that at today ’s hearing , the sleeping accommodation was as packed as it ’s ever been in their career .
“ We have a large audience , the large I ’ve see in this room today , ” stated Senator Dick Durbin ( D - IL ) , who has served on the Senate Judiciary Committee for over 20 years .
Zuckerberg in special draw immense wrath , perhaps since Meta has such a longsighted track track record of safety failures . Earlier this month , TechCrunch reported oninternal Meta documentsthat render multiple instance of employees raise concern about child exploitation on the company ’s messaging apps , to no avail ; and The Wall Street Journal has publishedmultiple reportsabout the negative impact of Instagram on teenage girl ’ mental health , among other concerning revelations . The Senate floor was pack with the class of children who have been victims of intimate victimisation , genial wellness exit and drug overdoses via societal media platforms , including Facebook and Instagram .
In the most dramatic moment of the hearing , Senator Josh Hawley ( R - MO ) zero in on Zuckerberg , asking him to apologize to these families .
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“ There ’s house of victims here today . Have you apologize to the victims ? Would you like to do so now ? ” Hawley pressed , reminding Zuckerberg that he was on national television . In a rare present moment for a Senate hearing , Zuckerberg stood up , turned around and faced the audience to address them at once , while some parents held up exposure of their departed children in the air .
“ I ’m meritless for everything you have all been through , ” Zuckerberg enounce . “ No one should go through the things that your families have suffered . This is why we adorn so much , and are go to stay on doing industriousness - run efforts to make certain that no one has to go through the eccentric of things that your families have had to get . ”
Hawley keep by inquire the CEO directly if he would set up a fund with his own money to pay the families of children who have been severely harm from abuse they ’ve experience on Meta platforms . Zuckerberg commence to tell the senator that these issues are complicated , before he was rationalize off , and Hawley repeated the interrogation . Both Zuckerberg and Hawley became increasingly agitated .
“ Well , senator , we ’re doing an diligence - result endeavor , we ’re work up AI puppet that – ”
“ Oh , nonsense . Your product is kill people . Will you personally commit to compensating the dupe ? You ’re a billionaire . ”
Zuckerberg did not make that commitment .
Legislative efforts
As multiple senators examine to push legislation to regulate kid ’s online condom , much of the questioning at today ’s hearing rotate around whether each CEO would hold any given vizor .
Privacy pleader also call into interrogation the potential for KOSA to endanger remnant - to - ending encryption , and surveil and censor adult ’ go through online .
“ finally , no amendment will change the basic fact that KOSA ’s duty of tending turns what is intend to be a bill about child safety into a censorship bill that will harm the rights of both adult and small-scale users , ” the Electronic Frontier Foundationwrotein a recent blog C. W. Post .
Senator Blumenthal asked all five CEOs if they would support KOSA . Snap ’s Evan Spiegel and X ’s Linda Yaccarino both voiced their funding for the bill , while the chief executive officer from Meta , Discord and TikTok wavered .
“ There are share of the routine that we think are great , ” said Discord CEO Jason Citron , nodding toward the potential privateness issue . “ We very much intend that a home privacy monetary standard would be corking . ”
As Spiegel substantiate Snap ’s keep , Blumenthal added that Microsoft justannouncedit would digest KOSA as well . But Chew would not plight his supporting as the bill remain firm .
“ With some changes , we can sustain it , ” Chew said . When pressed further , he dilate , “ We ’re cognizant some group have raised some worry . ” Before he could finish his persuasion , Blumenthal say he would take that answer as a no .
Chew is correct that KOSA has spurred controversy among various activist organisation .
“ Dozens of human right , civic liberties , LGBTQ+ and racial jurist group oppose the reckless statute law being propose in today ’s earreach , ” scrap for the Future Director Evan Greer say in a statement to TechCrunch . “ Hundreds of parent of transgender kids have specifically urged lawmaker to regard option to KOSA . ”
Zuckerberg was able-bodied to sound a act more about these concerns before he was cut off .
“ These are nuanced things . I think that the basic spirit is right , and the basic thought in it are right , and there are some idea that I would debate how to best – ”
“ Unfortunately , I do n’t think we can count on societal medium as a group or Big Tech to support this step , ” Blumenthal said .
Wasted time
It ’s an immense opportunity to have five social medium leaders model before you , legally obligated to suffice your enquiry in truth . But , as materialise in many Senate hearings , some senators used their time to advance their own political schedule , or to naively bully panelists .
When TikTok CEO Shou Chew testified before Congress last year , he was incite on TikTok ’s relationship to its Chinese parent fellowship ByteDance , and by extension , its connexion ( or want - thereof ) with the Chinese Community Party ( CCP ) . Whilesomereportshave shown evidence of Chinese ByteDance employees get at American TikTok information , there is no known evidence of that data being hold by the CCP .
Chew mouth about these subject last year in a five - hour listening in front of many of these same senators . But they chose to stay questioning Chew about his own personal political allegiances .
Senator Tom Cotton ( R - AK ) was peculiarly confrontational in his coming .
“ Have you ever been a member of the Chinese Community Party ? ” asked Cotton .
“ No , senator , I ’m Singaporean , ” respond Chew .
“ Have you ever been associated or consort with the Chinese Community Party ? ” Cotton ask .
“ No , senator , I ’m Singaporean , ” Chew repeated .
Cotton ’s dubiousness to Chew orb more around his personal history than his role as CEO of a social media political program with over a billion users . Cotton acknowledged Chew be in Singapore , but take of what land he is a citizen ( Singapore ) . He also ask what nations Chew possesses a passport from ( Singapore ) . When Cotton asked if Chew had ever applied for Chinese citizenship , he prompt the senator that he served for two and a half years in the Singaporean armed forces . While working at ByteDance , Chew lived in Beijing for five years , but he also lived in the United States while attending Harvard Business School , where he met his wife , who is American .
Cotton , as well as Senator Ted Cruz ( R - TX ) , went as far as to ask Chew about what happened in Tiananmen Square , a topic that the Formosan government forbids its citizens from discussing .
“ You said sooner in response to your interrogative sentence [ from Cruz ] that what materialize at Tiananmen Square in June of 1989 was a monolithic objection . Anything else take place in Tiananmen Square ? ” Cotton asked .
“ Yes , I think it ’s well - document , ” Chew reply . “ There was a slaughter . ”
These pointed lines of questioning wipe out up substantial clump of fourth dimension in a hearing that had the voltage to yield helpful discussion about online safety . or else , the hearing was a blow opportunity .
By the end of the audience , Senator Thom Tillis ( R - NC ) summed up the state of affairs quite well .
“ Every class , we have an yearly flogging . And what materially has occur over the last nine years ? ”
Microsoft , X throw their weight behind KOSA , the controversial kids on-line safety bill
Mark Zuckerberg hold teenage creators ’ right hand to public Instagram accounts
