The US senators grilled Social Media CEOs in a tense session. Senators pushed their case that social platforms need to do more to protect young users.
The CEOs of big Social Media companies appeared before the Senate committee on January 31, 2024. The CEOs of Snap, Meta, TikTok, Discord, and X appeared before the US Senate Judiciary Committee to discuss the efforts made by these big tech companies to protect young users and combat child exploitation content.
The committee gave the CEOs a bipartisan thrashing and pressed them on alleged shortcomings related to teen safety. Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg faced the most challenging questions of all and at one point he even turned around and apologized to the parents who were in the chambers. Those parents carried pictures of their children whose deaths have been tied to Social Media through drugs, harassment, and other types of threats.
A few days before the hearing Mark Zuckerberg owned company Meta introduced safety measures for teens on Instagram and Facebook.
Unlike the other hearings in the past where committees focused on the platforms themselves, in this one, senators consistently pressed the CEOs on whether they supported new proposed legislation for online safety.
In this hearing, the CEOs of big social media platforms had the opportunity to present their side of the story on what their companies are doing to combat child sexual abuse material that also affects the mental health of teenagers.
The CEOs reaffirmed their commitment to child safety on their platforms. And they also pointed out the tools they’ve built to protect young people from online abuse.
