The CEOs of Meta, Snap, Discord, X and TikTok testified before a high-stakes Senate Judiciary Committee on online child exploitation. During the hearing, Mark Zuckerberg, Evan Spiegel, Jason Citron, Linda Yaccarino and Shou Chew spent hours being questioned by lawmakers about their child safety records.
This was the first time Spiegel, Citron and Yaccarino testified before Congress. Notably, all three were subpoenaed by the committee after appear voluntarily, according to lawmakers. Judiciary Committee Chairman Sen. Dick Durbin noted that Citron “only accepted his subpoena services after U.S. Marshals were dispatched to Discord headquarters at taxpayer expense.”
The courtroom was filled with parents of children who were victims of online exploitation on social media. Many audience members silently held up photos of their children as the CEOs entered the room, and Durbin kicked off the hearing with a somber video featuring victims of child exploitation and their parents.
“Discord was used to groom, kidnap and abuse children,” Durbin said. “Meta’s Instagram helped connect and promote a pedophile ring. Disappeared Snapchat messages have been recovered by criminals who financially extort young victims. TikTok has become a quote-unquote platform of choice for predators to access, engage, and groom children for abuse. And the prevalence of CSAM on X has increased as the company has gutted its staff trust and security.
During the hearing, many senators shared personal stories of parents whose children committed suicide after being exploited online. “Mr. Zuckerberg, you and the companies before us — I know you don't mean it — but you have blood on your hands,” Sen. Lindsey Graham said in his opening remarks. The audience applauded.
While years of similar hearings have so far yielded no new laws, Congress has growing bipartisan support for new safety regulations. As Technology Policy Press There are currently more than half a dozen bills addressing children's online safety that have been proposed by senators. These include the which would require platforms to create more parental controls and security features and undergo independent audits, and a revised version of the Children and Adolescents' Privacy Protection Act of 1998, which would prohibit companies from collecting or monetizing children's data without their consent.
Senators also proposed a number of bills to combat child exploitation, including the EARN IT Act, which is currently in development. since 2020, and the STOP CSAM law. None of them made it to the Senate floor for a vote. Many of these bills were heavily lobbied by the tech industry, although some companies present said they were open to certain aspects of the legislation.
Zuckerberg suggests a different approach, saying he supports requirements for age verification and parental controls at the App Store level, which would effectively shift the burden to Apple and Google. Meta has come under particular pressure in recent months following a lawsuit filed by to harm the mental health of adolescents. Court documents from the suit allege that Meta became a to children under 13 using its service, to stop adults from sexually harassing teenagers on Facebook and that Zuckerberg personally to stop efforts to ban plastic surgery filters on Instagram.
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