Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg and four other leaders of social media companies are being reprimanded by lawmakers on Wednesday for not doing enough to safeguard kids online.
The Senate hearing opened with videos of people describing being sexually exploited on Facebook, Instagram and X, with Sen. Lindsey Graham telling Zuckerberg he had “blood on his hands.”
“You have a product that’s killing people,” stated Graham, a Republican from South Carolina, drawing applause and cheers from many of those attending the crowded Senate Judiciary Committee hearing.
Zuckerberg and his fellow CEOs all touted their child safety procedures and highlighted the positive aspects of using their social media platforms.
“As a result of Meta’s ongoing investment in the well-being of the people that use our services, teens and their parents now have over 30 tools, resources and features and we have protections to help keep teens safe and away from potentially harmful content or unwanted contact,” Meta said in a statement. “We have a robust central team overseeing youth well-being efforts across the company and have built technology and teams that can move quickly and efficiently to implement new improvements across specific apps.”
Meta spent $5 billion on safety and security in 2023 alone, according to the company.
An increasing number of lawmakers are urging measures to curtail the spread of child sexual abuse images online and to make the tech platforms accountable for safeguarding children.
“Big tech’s failure to protect our kids cannot go unanswered,” Senators Dick Durbin, a Democrat from Illinois, and Graham said in a joint statement when the hearing was announced in November.
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