The Senate Judiciary Committee held a hearing on Wednesday to question the CEOs of the most popular social media platforms about the steps the companies are taking to prevent the exploitation of children using their apps.
Five CEOs appeared before the committee, including Facebook (Meta) CEO Mark Zuckerberg, X, formerly known as Twitter, CEO Linda Yaccarino, TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew, Snap CEO Evan Spiegel, and Discord CEO Jason Citron. Yaccarino, Spiegel, and Citron only appeared after receiving a subpoena. Citron only appeared after U.S. Marshalls were dispatched to Discord headquarters “at taxpayers’ expense,” according to Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL).
The hearing was attended by families of children who have been exploited online. Many families carried photographs of their children, some of whom died by suicide, leading to an apology from Zuckerberg. After Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) accused the tech CEO of failing to protect children adequately, Zuckerberg addressed the victims’ loved ones.
“I’m sorry for everything you have all been through,” Zuckerberg said. “No one should go through the things that your families have suffered.”
Meta has recently begun a campaign to improve safeguards for children using the platform, including the announcement of an Austin-based content moderation center and settings that give parents more control over the content and time children spend on social media.
As reported by The Dallas Express, the State of New Mexico has filed a lawsuit against Meta and Zuckerberg, alleging that Facebook and its sister platform Instagram are used to solicit underage sex.
TikTok and X have both instituted policies intended to help deter exploitation. TikTok has an official age minimum of 13, while the CEO of X testified that the site has no business interests relating to attracting minors.
Senate committee members took the opportunity to promote one of the government’s latest efforts to rein in online abuse, called the Kids Online Security Act (KOSA), a high-profile bill that has yet to get a floor vote. Just one of the five companies at the hearing, Snap — which runs Snapchat — has publicly supported the measure.
In recent years, dozens of bills have been put forward in the name of protecting children online, but just one has passed. That bill, the Preventing Child Sex Abuse Act of 2023, was signed into law in December.
Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX), a member of the judiciary panel, introduced a bill in October 2023 that aims to improve law enforcement capabilities in tracking down and prosecuting online child predators.
Cornyn also went after TikTok CEO Chew about the lack of universal protections and the risk of data sharing with the Chinese Communist Party associated with his company’s app. Cornyn cited a Wall Street Journal article claiming that U.S. user data is openly shared among employees of ByteDance, a Chinese company that owns TikTok.
“Are you going to conduct any sort of investigation to see whether there’s any truth to the allegations made in the article, or are you just going to dismiss them outright?” Cornyn asked Chew.
“We’re not going to dismiss them. So we have ongoing security inspections not only by our own personnel but also by third parties to ensure that the system is rigorous and robust,” Chew responded. “No system that any one of us can build is perfect.”
Leaders of the tech companies mentioned that while there is a growing focus on preventing exploitation, there is only so much the companies can do to prevent bad actors.
“Just like with all technology and tools, there are people who exploit and abuse our platforms for immoral and illegal purposes,” Discord CEO Citron said. “All of us here on the panel today and throughout the tech industry, have a solemn and urgent responsibility to ensure that everyone who uses our platforms is protected from these criminals, both online and off.”
Lawmakers noted that many of the various platforms’ attempts at safety upgrades came only in recent weeks, ahead of the hearing.
“I think Congress is going to have to help you,” Sen. John Kennedy (R-LA) said. “I think the reforms you’re talking about, to some extent, are going to be like putting paint on rotten wood.”
