The scene was full of gunpowder! U.S. Senate hearings "torture" social ** giants.
Accusations, tears and roars" - On January 31, local time, the Senate Judiciary Committee of the United States Congress summoned the heads of social media giants such as Meta to hold a hearing on the theme of "Technology Giants and the Crisis of Online Sexual Exploitation of Children", urging all platforms to protect the health and privacy of children and adolescents. While some of the CEOs were already "regulars" of the U.S. Congress, unlike previous ones, the hearing included live pressure from victims' families and child advocacy groups to force the Silicon Valley giants to apologize to the public. In the unique confrontation, the hearing scene was full of gunpowder, and the families of the victims attending the meeting were even more emotionally out of control several times. Matt Navarra, an analyst in the social media industry, said the hearing was no different from other similar hearings, which included "a lot of American political grandstanding." The US media believes that the road to promoting relevant legislation in the US Congress is still "very long".
We're worth more than $270."
According to the Associated Press, the Senate hearing on January 31 summoned a total of five executives of social ** companies, namely Meta CEO Zuckerberg, TikTok CEO Zhou Shouzi, X Company CEO Yaccarino, Discord CEO Hitron, and Snapchat founder Spiegel. According to the U.S. technology news **theverge, the Senate has been preparing for this hearing for several months, after Congress even took coercive measures due to the lack of cooperation of individual executives, and specially sent bailiffs to the door to subpoena Yaccarino and Citron.
According to the report, as soon as the hearing began, Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Dick Durbin's argument was full of gunpowder, saying that today's social platforms and messaging apps provide perpetrators with "powerful tools" to sexually exploit children and adolescents. In his speech, Durbin slammed social media platforms: "Their design approach, their lack of investment in safety and trust, and their neglect of basic security in the pursuit of profit are all putting our future generations at risk." He criticized Discord by name as an app used to "deceive, kidnap and abuse children", Meta's "** wall" is "a platform for pedophiles to hook up with each other", and Snapchat has become a tool for criminals to blackmail victims.
According to The Hill, a publicly available internal Meta document shows that the company estimates the "lifetime value" of a teenage user at $270. "In other words, children are profit centers, and if Meta spends more than $270 per capita to keep the platform safe, then it doesn't make any commercial sense for them," the report said. At the Jan. 31 hearing, Senator Blackburn, Republican of Tennessee, angrily rebuked Zuckerberg, saying, "How could you possibly think that? Children are never your focus, they are just your products. At the hearing, several youth activists revealed the words "We are worth more than $270" on black T-shirts. Senator John F. Kennedy, Republican of Louisiana, mocked Zuckerberg and said, "Is your company's user agreement still that bad?" He also accused the company of even spying on the lives of non-Facebook users, which can be called "obscene to the home".
Zuckerberg was "forced" to apologize in public.
According to CNN, the hearing was attended by the parents of a number of social ** victims, most of whom were holding their children's ** or posthumous photos. ** Described their presence as "an unprecedented sense of oppression" for the hearing. USA Today cited as an example that 15-year-old Olivia Prodromitius was tricked into taking drugs on Snapchat, and the platform did not take any responsibility for it; 15-year-old Leiri Rhodes was coerced, photographed, and blackmailed for money through Facebook, and finally chose to commit suicide. There are also minors who have suffered great harm due to excessive ** and online violence. According to AFP, under U.S. law, social media is largely exempt from legal liability related to the content it shares on.
Audience members hold ** and signs during a hearing on child safety online before the Senate Judiciary Committee of the U.S. Congress on January 31, 2024. The picture comes from the US media.
The Judicial Council said that these young victims were direct evidence of major social deficiencies. Republican Senator Graham pointed the finger at Zuckerberg: "Your hands are covered in blood......Your product can kill people. Republican Senator Hawley even demanded that Zuckerberg apologize directly to the victim's parents, choking Zuckerberg for a while. He then turned to face the audience, and said to the ** raised by the parents: "I'm sorry for all the ...... you have experiencedNo one should go through the pain you go through. He said Meta would continue to be committed to making "industry-leading efforts" to ensure that such tragedies do not happen again. Spiegel also apologized on the spot for Snapchat's shortcomings and apologized to the families of the victims who died from accidental ingestion.
Zuckerberg apologized to the victims and their families at the hearing.
However, many victim groups do not buy their "apologies". Nolin, the mother of one of the victims, said Spiegel's apology was "too fake" and had no conscience at all. She said: "Our children are just cannon fodder and a number to them. Youth activists at the scene also said in an interview that Zuckerberg's apology was very "cheap", believing that he had been avoiding the important and weakening the link between social ** and mental health.
Performance? Pushing for legislation?
According to CNN, the hearing on January 31 reflected that the controversy and criticism faced by social media companies today is quite widespread, and has even become a "rare force" to unite both parties in Congress. According to the New York Times, although both parties are keen to take measures to restrict technology platforms, they have had little effect, and the U.S. Congress has not passed meaningful legislation to regulate social platform companies, and most of the restraint measures on social media giants are currently carried out in state legislatures and courts. According to the Financial Times, although the US Congress called social ** executives to the hearing, in fact, lawmakers did not agree on what kind of regulatory measures should be taken next.
NBC said that there are two important draft legislation in the U.S. Congress, including the "Child ** Safety Act" aimed at blocking content and commercial promotion that is not conducive to physical and mental health for minor users, such as addiction, eating disorders, suicidal tendencies, etc.; Another "Prevention of Child Treatment" focuses on stopping the spread of inappropriate content and strengthening the accountability of platforms. However, there is no consensus on these two drafts at all. CNN said there is still a "very long way to go" for Congress to push through legislation. Non-** organizations such as Fight for the Future expressed disappointment with the hearing, arguing that the hearing was more like a performance by senators to appear on television and had little to do with pushing for legislation.
Related reports: "Bloody **" spread hype for several hours, and the US media slammed social ** for being taken off the shelves too slowly.
The hearing came a day after a shocking tragedy took place in the United States. A Pennsylvania man beheaded his father and posted on social media **youtube** showing his father's head. The incident has once again sparked criticism on social media for allowing this bloody episode to spread for hours before it was deleted.
According to ABC on February 1, 32-year-old Justin Mohn posted a 14-minute video on YouTube on January 30 local time, claiming to have killed his 68-year-old father, Michael, "a federal employee." He also expressed his position on immigration issues in **, expressing anger at Biden**'s practice of "putting an army of illegal immigrants into the United States", and calling for an uprising against Biden**. Later that day, Morn was arrested more than 100 miles from the scene of the crime.
The 32-year-old man who calls himself Justin Morn posted **screenshots.
According to the report, the ** uploaded by Moen was deleted after about 5 hours of circulation on YouTube, and then it was ** on social **X, where it went viral for another 7 hours and received at least 20,000 views. YouTube later said in a statement that the platform has a strict policy prohibiting violent imagery and extremism, that the relevant ** has been deleted, and that Moen's account has been deleted.
Justin Mohn's parents, foreign media reports with pictures.
One can't help but ask, why didn't it (violence**) be removed sooner? The Associated Press quoted Jacob Wahl, a fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, as saying that the reality is that social media has become a frontline for extremism and terrorism, and despite the obstacles, social media still need to be vigilant in regulating violent content. According to the report, the time lag between the release of the violation and the removal of the violation has raised questions among Americans about whether social ** has taken effective regulatory measures, and in the context of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict and the Russia-Ukraine conflict, and the fierce competition in the United States, social ** needs to strengthen supervision more than ever.
According to the ABC, American social networks rely too much on algorithms and outsourced teams to manage content, rather than relying on employees to develop better strategies to solve problems. Josh Goering, head of an organisation dedicated to protecting children online, said: "Platforms like YouTube don't invest enough in the 'Trust & Safety' team compared to things like ad sales, so many violations** often take a long time to take down. (Pastik).
Feng Yaren, a special correspondent of the Global Times in the United States, and Liu Haoran and Zhen Xiang, special reporters of the Global Times.