By Mark Gray
7:51am PST, Feb 3, 2024
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A tech takedown! On Jan. 31, the chief executives of Meta, TikTok, Snap, Discord and X testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee — and things got very contentious. During the hearing, senators from both sides of the political aisle condemned the tech companies for not doing enough to protect young people on their respective platforms. (The hearing was most combative when senators grilled Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg.)
It's an increasingly rare sight to see Democrats and Republicans in alignment on an issue, but they were united in their criticism of the social media companies. The hearing became even more high pressured as families of children harmed by social media showed up in force.
Click through to see all the accusations and hot takes from the confrontational hearing…
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"It appears that you're trying to be the premier sex trafficking site in this country. You have an army of lawyers who fight us on any bipartisan legislation. Are you going to stop lobbying against the legislation considered in this hearing? You need to come to the table — kids are dying." —Sen. Marsha Blackburn to Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg
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Sen. Josh Hawley told META founder Mark Zuckerberg, "Your own study says that you make life worse for one in three teenaged girls. You increase anxiety and depression. You're here testifying that there's no link. You've been doing this for years. For years you've been coming in public and testifying under oath that there's absolutely no link, while internally you know full well your product is a disaster for teenagers."
He then asked the tech scion to apologize to the families of the sex exploitation victims at the hearing.
"I'm sorry for everything you have all been through," Zuckerberg said. "No one should go through the things that your families have suffered and this is why we invest so much and we are going to continue doing industry-wide efforts to make sure no one has to go through the things your families have had to suffer."
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Sen. Amy Klobuchar brought up the recent incident during which an airplane door came off after takeoff, prompting Boeing to ground planes and launch an investigation: "So why aren't we taking the same decisive action when we know these kids are dying?" she asked, adding, "I'm so tired of this. It's been 28 years … since the start of the internet. We haven't passed any of these bills because everyone's 'double talk, double talk.' It's time to actually pass them."
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"Mr. Zuckerberg, you and the companies before us, I know you don't mean it to be so, but you have blood on your hands. You have a product that's killing people. When we had cigarettes that were killing people, we did something about it — maybe not enough. You gonna talk about guns, we have the ATF… [but] nothing here, there's not a damn thing anybody can do about [social media], you can't be sued," Sen. Lindsey Graham said. "After years of working on this issue with you and others, I've come to conclude the following: Social media companies as they're currently designed and operate are dangerous products. They're destroying lives, and threatening democracy itself. These companies must be reined in or the worst is yet to come."
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The hearing was attended by families of children who were sexually exploited on social media. Some of the those children took their own lives or were severely harmed. While referencing the families, Sen. Chris Coons said, "This room is packed as far as the eye can see. The families that are here because they want us to see you and to know your concern. You have contacted each of us in our offices expressing your grief, your loss, your passion and your concern… Our challenge is to take the data and make good decisions about protecting families and children from harm."
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"Your companies are going to need the government's help. Any reforms you do on your own are like paint on rotten wood," Sen. John Kennedy said. "You have convinced over 2 billion people to give up all of their personal information — every bit of it — in exchange for getting to see what their high school friends had for dinner Saturday night. And you take this information, this abundance of personal information and then you develop algorithms to punch people's hot buttons … again and again and again, to keep them coming back and to keep them staying longer. And as a result, your users see only one side of an issue, and so to some extent, your platform has become a killing field for the truth, isn't it?"
He continued, "You're in the foothills of creepy. You track people who aren't even Facebook users. I just wonder if our technology is greater than our humanity in the interest of this funnel… If you think that Instagram is not hurting millions of our young people, particularly young teens, particularly young women, you shouldn't be driving."
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"There are no tools to hold the company accountable. Instead, survivors and advocates are left to plead with these companies to choose safety over profit. They're responsible for many of the dangers our children face online. 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… As parents and grandparents we know what daughters and sons and others are going through — they cannot cope. They cannot handle this issue on their own. They're counting on us — as much as they're counting on the industry — to do the responsible thing." — Sen. Richard Durbin
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"I'm so sorry that we have not been able to prevent these tragedies. We work very hard to block all search terms related to drugs on our platform," Snapchat CEO Evan Spiegel told the victim's families during the hearing.
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Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Meta, is sworn in to the Senate Judiciary Committee hearing titled "Big Tech and the Online Child Sexual Exploitation Crisis," in Dirksen building on Jan. 31, 2024.
