Meta’s CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, said sorry to families who say their kids were hurt by social media, in a heated meeting at the US Senate.
Mark Zuckerberg, who is in charge of Instagram and Facebook, told them that no one should experience what they went through.
He and the leaders of TikTok, Snap, X and Discord were asked questions by senators from both political parties for nearly four hours.
Legislators wanted to find out how they are keeping kids safe on the internet.
New rules are being made by Congress to make social media companies responsible for what people post on their websites.
On Wednesday, US senators got a chance to ask tech bosses some questions, which does not happen often.
Mr Zuckerberg and TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew said yes to testifying, but the leaders of Snap, X (formerly Twitter), and messaging platform Discord said no at first. So, they were forced to with government subpoenas.
Five tech bosses were sitting with families who said their children had hurt themselves or died because of things they saw on social media.
They showed how they felt by booing when the CEOs came in and clapping when the lawmakers asked hard questions.
The meeting mainly talked about keeping kids safe from being hurt on the internet. The senators asked a lot of different questions to the executives who were there.
TikTok, a company owned by a Chinese company called ByteDance, was asked if it shares American users’ data with the Chinese government. The CEO, Mr. Chew, said they do not.
US Senator Tom Cotton asked a person from Singapore if they were ever a member of the Chinese Communist Party.
“Senator, I am from Singapore. ” “No,” Mr Chew said.
Mr Cotton then asked, “Have you ever been connected or involved with the Chinese Communist Party. ”
Mr Chew said: “No, senator. ” Once again, I am from Singapore.
He said that as a father of three young kids, he knew the problems being talked about were “awful and every parent’s worst fear”.
He said his kids don’t use TikTok because in Singapore kids under 13 are not allowed to have accounts.
Mr Zuckerberg, who runs Meta, had to answer a lot of questions when he appeared before Congress for the eighth time.
Republican Senator Ted Cruz asked Mr. Zuckerberg “What were you thinking. ” when he showed him an Instagram prompt that warns users they may see child sexual abuse material, but asks if they still want to see it.
Mr Zuckerberg said the “basic idea is that instead of just blocking the bad stuff, it can be more useful to guide people towards something helpful. ” He said he will check it himself.
During a conversation with Senator Josh Hawley, Mr. Zuckerberg was asked to say sorry to the families who were sitting near him.
He got up, faced the people and told them: “I apologize for all the bad things you have experienced, it’s really awful. ”
“No one should have to experience the same pain and hardships that your families have gone through.
Senators annoyed over things not moving forward as they hoped.
The main topic of the hearing was the companies’ opinions on the new online safety laws Congress is working on.
This was seen during a heated argument between Jason Citron of Discord and Republican lawmaker Lindsey Graham.
Mr Graham talked about some bills in Congress that are about keeping people safe online. He asked Mr Citron if he agreed with those bills or not.
“Mr Graham didn’t let Mr. Citron talk much, and the Discord boss seemed to have doubts about most of Mr. Citron’s ideas”
Mr Graham said: “If we are waiting for these guys to solve the problem, we are not going to make it. ”
Before the meeting, Meta said they will now make it so kids on Instagram and Messenger can’t get messages from people they don’t know.
Social media expert Matt Navarra told the media that he believed the hearing looked like many other confrontations, with a lot of US political showmanship and a great chance for Mr. Zuckerberg to apologize and have his photo taken.
He said that even though senators agreed on the need for both political parties to work together to make rules for websites, it’s still not clear what will happen next.
He said we’ve had these hearings many times before, but they haven’t really resulted in any important rules or regulations.
It’s 2024 and the US barely has any rules for social media companies, as was mentioned during the hearings.
The bosses also said how many people they hired to check content on their websites.
Meta and TikTok have the most users, and they each have 40,000 moderators. Snap has 2,300 moderators, X has 2,000, and Discord, which is smaller, has “hundreds” of moderators.
Discord is a messaging app and people have asked how it keeps kids safe from harm on its platform.
After the meeting, some parents went outside and held a gathering, asking lawmakers to make laws that make companies responsible.
Joann Bogard said that many parents still don’t think that the bad things we’re talking about today will hurt their families, just like she did before her son Mason died in May 2019. She said he had joined a TikTok trend where people pretended to choke themselves.
“She said that our normal kids are getting hurt during the night. ” “We have the evidence from people who witnessed it. ” It’s time for our lawmakers to approve the Kids Online Safety Act.
Arturo Béjar, who used to work for Meta and spoke to Congress in November 2023, said to the BBC that the company is not taking responsibility for keeping teenagers safe. He said they won’t even add a button for teens to report unwanted advances.
“How can they keep teens safe without it. ”
Today, Meta said they have brought in “more than 30 tools” to help keep teenagers safe on the internet.
