Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg issues dramatic apology at Senate hearing on child safety

Please use the sharing tools found via the share button at the top or side of articles. Copying articles to share with others is a breach of FT.com T&Cs and Copyright Policy. Email [email protected] to buy additional rights. Subscribers may share up to 10 or 20 articles per month using the gift article service. More information can be found here. https://www.ft.com/content/87840b12-08b5-4b90-9afc-bc8fba730ff9Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg was pushed to publicly apologise to the families of people who said they had been harmed by his social media platform, a dramatic moment in a heated congressional hearing over child safety online. Zuckerberg, whose Meta is the parent of popular platforms Facebook and Instagram, came under particular fire by irate lawmakers during Wednesday’s hearing before the Senate judiciary committee over whether social media companies have done enough to protect younger users from child predators, pornography and other harmful content. The committee began by showing an evocative video of victims speaking about sexual abuse on the platforms, as well as parents of children who had died by suicide after being exploited online.

Later, after being called upon repeatedly by Republican senator Josh Hawley to apologise to victims, Zuckerberg turned round to the large crowd of families present behind him, many of whom held photographs of lost loved ones, and said that he was sorry for everything that they had been through. “No one should go through the things your families have suffered,” he said, adding that Meta was investing in “industry-leading efforts” to prevent families from going through such things in the future. The hearing also featured testimony from X’s Linda Yaccarino, TikTok’s Shou Zi Chew, Snap’s Evan Spiegel and Discord’s Jason Citron. All came under fierce questioning from both sides of the political spectrum. But the session was particularly disastrous for Zuckerberg, who has attempted to rehabilitate his image recently. He also faced accusations from Republicans that he had lied previously to Congress about the harm done by his platforms. “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,” said Lindsey Graham, the South Carolina senator and the committee’s top Republican, in his opening remarks, prompting applause from those gathered. “You have a product that’s killing people.” The hearing comes as Congress considers several proposed pieces of federal legislation that target the Silicon Valley groups, such as the controversial Kids Online Safety Act, which requires platforms to protect children from online harms. However, the Senate and the House have so far failed to find consensus on the precise measures that should be taken. Bills such as the Kids Online Safety Act have faced pushback from technology platforms and the trade groups that represent them.? During the hearing, the executives gave a mixed response to the series of current proposals. In his testimony, Zuckerberg called for lawmakers instead to mandate regulation requiring Apple and Google app stores to verify the age of younger users. He reiterated the long-standing assertion that the platform had introduced numerous tools and features to protect children.?

In her opening statement, Yaccarino insisted that X, formerly known as Twitter, was “not the platform of choice for children and teens” and “does not have a line of business dedicated to children”.? But she and Spiegel won plaudits for their open support of the Kids Online Safety Act. This stood in contrast to an exchange with Citron, who balked when asked by Graham if the gaming-focused chat messaging group supported the various proposed pieces of legislation, such as the Stop CSAM [Child Sexual Abuse Material] Act, one by one. Citron avoided answering in the affirmative, prompting Graham to state: “If you’re waiting on these guys to solve the problem, we’re going to die waiting.''