Major tech brand CEOs testified in Congress regarding their websites’ possible facilitation of online sex abuse and overall harm caused to children and teens Jan 30. CEOs in attendance include: Meta’s Mark Zuckerburg, TikTok’s Shou Zi Chew, Snapchat’s Evan Spiegel, Discord’s Jason Citron and X’s Linda Yaccarino.
These CEOs were met with overtly hostile senators who claim these tech brands are partly responsible for the distribution of “sexual images and videos of children” according to the Washington Post.
The hearing began with testimony from children and their families stating they or someone they know has been exploited on social media.
Senators and Committee members confronted the CEOs with hostility and accusations of mistrust and endangerment.
“They’re responsible for many of the dangers our children face online,” Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin said during opening remarks. “Their design choices, their failures to adequately invest in trust and safety, their constant pursuit of engagement and profit over basic safety have all put our kids and grandkids at risk.”
The CEOs were questioned by members of the Senate one at a time. During Zuckerberg’s session, he was confronted with a question regarding compensation for victims and their families regarding harm from Meta, which he answered by standing and turning to families around him and giving an apology.
“I’m sorry for everything you have all been through. No one should go through the things that your families have suffered,” Zuckerberg said.
Many families of children and teens who lost their lives to suicide were in attendance, in attempts to bring awareness to their situations, and to help bring about possible solutions and change.
“Nothing that was said today was different than what we expected,” Parent Neveen Radwan said. “It was a lot of promises and a lot of, quite honestly, a lot of talk without them really saying anything. The apology that he made, while it was appreciated, it was a little bit too little, too late, of course.”
Radwan’s daughter suffered from Anorexia and died during COVID-19, and according to Radwan Anorexia was due to a “black hole of dangerous content” during the COVID-19 lockdown period.
The senate hearing has also sparked responses from online sex abuse activists on social media, the leading voice being SOSA, Stopping Online Sex Abuse. Founder Roo Powell took to Instagram to voice her opinion on the matter.
“A key theme of the hearing was, CEOs claiming their platforms have tools to combat common issues,” Powell said. “While others claim these tools are flawed at best and entirely ineffective at worst.”