Washington
CNN
—
A group of social media giants was grilled by Congress on Wednesday over the risks their products pose to young people.
The chief executives of Meta, TikTok, Snap, Discord, and X (formerly Twitter) testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee earlier Wednesday. The hearing was emotional at times, with apologies from the two CEOs, tough questioning from senators, and reactions from families present who witnessed some of the children being harmed. Ta.
The main takeaways are:
Family members and victims were a huge help during the hearing.
Wednesday’s hearing proved that the families of those harmed by social media have tremendous power.
Through applause, laughter, hisses and moments of silence during the CEO’s testimony, a key theme was parents who say their children have suffered or died because of social media.
These appeared to increase tensions and, in some cases, fuel attacks by lawmakers against CEOs. Congress has held numerous hearings on technology company CEOs. But more than any other factor, the presence of so many parents in the room altered the hearing and created an unprecedented sense of urgency.
Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg stood in the hearing room to apologize to the families.
“I’m sorry for everything you’ve been through,” he said. “No one should have to go through what your family has had to go through. This is why we invest so much money to ensure that no one has to go through what your family has had to go through. We will continue to work on this across the industry.”
In response, Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Missouri, called for the billionaire to “compensate” families whose children were affected by Zuckerberg’s platform.
At the urging of California Democratic Sen. LaFonza Butler, Snap CEO Evan Spiegel also apologized to families whose children died after purchasing drugs on Snapchat.
“We are extremely disappointed that we were unable to prevent these tragedies,” Spiegel said, before detailing some of the efforts the company is taking to protect young users.
Sen. Marsha Blackburn confronted Mr. Zuckerberg about internal meta documents suggesting the company estimated the lifetime value of a teenage user at $270.
“How could you come up with that idea? It’s amazing to me,” Blackburn said, noting a group of youth advocates in the audience and urging them to stand.
The defenders then revealed they were wearing T-shirts emblazoned with the slogan “I’m worth more than $270.”
“Children are not your priority. Children are your commodity,” Blackburn told Zuckerberg during a tense exchange.
Sen. John Kennedy, R-Louisiana, said meta platforms have become a “dead field of information” where users “only see one side of the problem.”
“You have convinced over 2 billion people to give up all of their personal information, every bit of it, in exchange for knowing what their high school friends ate on Saturday night.” he said.
When asked if Facebook makes it clear to users how their data will be monetized by the platform, Kennedy replied, “Are the user agreements still terrible?”
This caused laughter in the room.
Zuckerberg said people understand the basics of how social media works.
“You are at the foot of a spooky mountain. They go after people who aren’t even Facebook users,” Kennedy said. “I wonder if our technology is better than humanity when it comes to the benefits of this funnel.”
Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minnesota, appeared visibly shaken as she shared stories of parents whose children have been harmed by social media platforms, including young people who committed suicide after being threatened by online predators. .
“I’m sick of it,” Klobuchar said. “It’s been 28 years since the internet started. The reason we haven’t passed these bills is because everyone is ‘double-talking, double-talking.’ It’s time to actually outrun them. ”
Zuckerberg apologizes to family at Senate hearing
TikTok CEO Shou Chew has been criticized multiple times for the company’s ties to China through its parent company ByteDance, as well as the amount of access and influence it has in subsidying the platform to the Chinese government.
In one instance, Chu told Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Arkansas, that he would appoint him CEO of the platform the day after the Chinese Communist Party’s China Internet Investment Fund bought a 1% stake in ByteDance’s main Chinese subsidiary. He said it was a “coincidence”. A seat on the subsidiary’s board of directors.
Senator Hawley also questioned Mr Chew, a Singaporean, about the company’s ties to China and the Chinese Communist Party.
In another example, during a regular question from Texas Republican Sen. Ted Cruz, Chu described the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre in Beijing as a “massive protest.”
While Chu’s depiction of the event is accurate, it omits the subsequent bloody crackdown on pro-democracy activists by the Chinese government, which is now heavily censored on the Chinese internet.
In later testimony, Chu called Tianmen Square a massacre.
Chu previously testified before Congress that TikTok allows content about Tiananmen Square on its platform. TikTok does not operate within China. However, its parent company ByteDance distributes a nearly similar app known as Douyin in China.
Wednesday’s hearing showed a broader range of criticism of social media companies among lawmakers, making it a rare bipartisan topic on Capitol Hill.
In an early example, Sen. Graham highlighted how he had “little in common” with Democratic colleague Sen. Elizabeth Warren and how he had a different political philosophy from Democratic Sen. Dick Durbin. . But he said there is agreement on the question of how technology is impacting society.
“Elizabeth and I feel there are abuses here that need to be addressed. Although Senator Durbin and I have different political philosophies, we appreciate your hard work on this committee. has been a great partner. To my Democratic colleagues, thank you very much. To my Republican colleagues, thank you very much,” Graham said.
But despite both parties’ desire to go after tech platforms, Congress has yet to pass meaningful legislation to regulate social media companies.
Most of the lawsuits are in state legislatures and courts, which have become battlegrounds for new policies such as social media age limits.
“I’m tired of talking. I’m tired of arguing,” Graham said. “Open the courthouse doors. Until we do that, nothing will change. Until these people are sued for damages, it’s all talk.”