‘Blood on hands’: US lawmakers grill tech CEOs over child safety

Ahead of the testimony, Meta and X announced new measures.

Washington:

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg and the CEOs of TikTok, X, Discord and Snap faced questioning from U.S. lawmakers on Wednesday over the dangers children and teenagers face on social media platforms.

The tech executives were summoned by the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee to discuss the impact of social media in a session titled “Big Tech and the Online Child Sexual Exploitation Crisis.”

Executives are facing a torrent of political outrage for not doing enough to prevent online dangers to children, including sexual predators and teen suicide.

During a particularly heated round of questioning, Zuckerberg was forced to stand and apologize to the families of the victims who packed the committee room.

“Mr. Zuckerberg, you and the companies before us, I know you didn’t mean it, but you have blood on your hands. Your products are killing people,” Senator Lindsey Graham told CEOs .

Testifying before senators were Zuckerberg, X’s Linda Yaccarino, TikTok’s Shou Zi Chew, Snap’s Evan Spiegel and Discord’s Jason Citron.

“We work hard to provide parents and teens with support and controls to reduce potential harm,” Meta’s Zuckerberg told the committee in his opening remarks.

He added: “Keeping young people safe online has been a challenge since the advent of the internet and as criminals continue to evolve their tactics, we must also continue to evolve our defences.”

Zuckerberg also told lawmakers that, based on research, “in general” social media is not harmful to young people’s mental health.

“As a father of three, I know the issues we’re discussing today are horrific and every parent’s nightmare,” TikTok’s Chew said.

“I intend to invest more than $2 billion in trust and security. This year alone we have 40,000 security professionals working on this topic,” Chew said.

Meta also said that its 40,000 employees are dedicated to cybersecurity and that it has invested $20 billion since 2016 to improve the security of the platform.

Ahead of the testimony, Meta and X (formerly Twitter) announced new measures in response to the heated meeting.

Meta, which owns the world’s leading platforms Facebook and Instagram, said it will block direct messages sent by strangers to teenagers.

By default, teens under 16 can now only be messaged or added to group chats by people they already follow or are connected to.

Meta has also tightened content restrictions for teens on Instagram and Facebook, making it harder for them to view posts discussing suicide, self-harm or eating disorders.

multi-state litigation

Senators specifically pointed to Meta, pointing out that internal company documents show that Zuckerberg refused to strengthen the team dedicated to tracking youth online dangers.

“The hypocrisy is mind-boggling,” Senator Richard Blumenthal told The New York Times.

The documents are part of a major lawsuit brought by about 40 states against Meta over alleged failures with children.

Under U.S. law, online platforms are largely immune from legal liability related to content shared on their sites.

While lawmakers hope to enact more rules to improve cybersecurity, the new law has been stymied by divided politics in Washington and intense lobbying by Big Tech companies.

One existing proposal is the Children’s Online Safety Act (KOSA), which aims to protect children from algorithms that may trigger anxiety or depression.

Another idea is to require social media platforms to verify the age of account holders and ban children under 13 entirely.

“I don’t think you can solve the problem. Congress has to help you,” Sen. John Neely Kennedy told the executives.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)