Social Media CEOs Grilled in Congress

Congressional hearings are known for grandstanding politicians as much as addressing social issues. But the latest grilling of tech CEOS in Washington underscores the nation’s growing focus on the dangers social media poses to children, NPR reports.

Last week’s the Senate Judiciary Committee hearing focused on the obligation of social media giants to protect children online, as well as the measures lawmakers are taking to ensure it happens.

Witnesses at the “Big Tech and the Online Child Sexual Exploitation Crisis” included Mark Zuckerberg, Founder and Chief Executive Officer, Meta, Linda Yaccarino, Chief Executive Officer, X Corp (formerly Twitter), Evan Spiegel, Co-founder and Chief Executive Officer, Snap Inc., Shou Chew, Chief Executive Officer, TikTok Inc. and Jason Citron, Chief Executive Officer, Discord Inc.

Meta has come under particular scrutiny

After whistleblower testimony by two former employees – Frances Haugen in October 2021 and Alejandro Béjar in November 2023 – Meta has faced multiple lawsuits from families, school districts, and even states.

In October 2021, Facebook whistleblower Frances Haugen testified to a Senate subcommittee that “Facebook’s products harm children, stoke division, weaken our democracy and much more. The company’s leadership knows ways to make Facebook and Instagram safer and won’t make the necessary changes because they have put their immense profits before people.”

She also exposed the company’s internal documents to the press in what have been called The Facebook Papers. One company slide acknowledged that “we make body image issues worse for one in three teen girls.”

As a result of that testimony, multiple families chose to sue Meta for harms to their children.

Haugen’s testimony created quite a stir. The Wall Street Journal focused a series of articles on the topic in a series they called “The Facebook Files.” The articles lay out internal research showing that Facebook’s own research documented the negative impact its products had on young people, particularly teen girls, and despite this knowledge and public pledges to rectify the harms, the company failed to act. Not only that, but Facebook chose to target a new, even younger market share: tweens, which one Adam Mosseri, head of Instagram, called “a valuable but untapped audience.”

Last November, another Facebook whistleblower, former Meta engineer Arturo Béjar, testified before a Senate Judiciary subcommittee that 24% of teens on the platform had received unwanted sexual advances. Not only that, when harmful posts are reported to Facebook, he added, only 2% are taken down. “We can’t trust them with our children,” he summarized.

Last October, a group of more than 40 states sued Meta, alleging Facebook and Instagram were designed to be addictive. In an unrelated suit, the New Mexico attorney general sued the giant for allegedly failing to remove child sexual abuse material from its platforms and allowing adults to easily solicit minors.

“You have blood on your hands” – Lawmakers take executives to task

Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC) began his testimony by telling Zuckerberg, “You have blood on your hands. You have a product that’s killing people,” drawing applause from a packed house of families holding photos of their loved ones who had experienced social media harms – even death by suicide after sexual exploitation or cyberbullying.

Zuckerberg, who unlike other executives testified voluntarily – Yaccarino, Spiegel and Citron had to be subpoenaed – said in his opening statement, “Keeping young people safe online has been a challenge since the internet began.”

“No matter how much we invest or how effective our tools are, there’s always more to learn and more improvements to make,” he added.

Senator Josh Hawley (R-MO) drew an apology from Zuckerberg, who, when asked if he’d like to apologize for the harm his products had caused, stood and turned to face the gallery.

“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.”

Meta’s historic and current efforts to protect kids

In January 2024, in advance of the hearing, Meta rolled out new tools geared toward protecting kids online. Children under 18 are now prohibited from seeing posts about suicide, self-harm, and disordered eating. For over a decade, Meta has been working on youth safety, developing more than 30 tools, features and resources to support teens and their parents. Since 2016, Meta has invested over $20 billion in safety efforts, approximately $5 billion in the last year alone, and has about 40,000 people working on safety and security.

But just hours before the start of the hearing lawmakers released 90 pages of internal emails showing that Meta – citing budget and headcount issues – had refused to fully prioritize child safety on its platforms.

Five federal bills proposed

As legislators are themselves under fire for failing to act on this issue, multiple pieces of legislation have been introduced to reduce the toxic environment for children on social media.

The Kids Online Safety Act – which holds tech firms accountable for feeding teens toxic content – is one such bill senators are hoping to bring to a vote this year. Prior to the hearing, Snap was the only social media company who had pledged to support it, but as the hearing progressed, Yaccarino of X (Twitter) also agreed to do so, NPR reported. The other tech leaders declined, despite pressure from lawmakers to publicly back it.

At one point Senator Chris Coons (D-DE) introduced the bipartisan Platform Accountability and Transparency Act he has co-sponsored, which would increase transparency by social media platforms and give independent researchers access to internal company data. He asked the CEOs, “Is there any one of you willing to say now that you support this bill?”

When no hands were raised, Coons followed up, “Mr. Chairman, let the record reflect a yawning silence from the leaders of the social media platforms.”

Read the full NPR article here.

Watch the Senate Judiciary Committee hearing its entirety.

Or read a lightly edited transcript of the hearing.

 

Kerr, Dara. “’You have blood on your hands,’ Senator tells Mark Zuckerberg for failing kids online.” NPR.org, 31 Jan 2024, https://www.npr.org/2024/01/31/1228062503/mark-zuckerberg-linda-yaccarino-tech-ceos-washington-kids-safety.

Photo credit: Guillaume Paumier, CC-BY.