On January 31, local time, at a hearing held in the U.S. Congress on the safety of minors on social **, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg apologized to families who claimed that their children were socially harmed.
According to NBC, Financial Times, BBC and other reports, on January 31, local time, the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee held a hearing on "Big Tech Companies and the ** Child Sexual Exploitation Crisis" in Washington, D.C. The topic of the hearing was whether social companies are taking adequate steps to protect young users from child criminals, pornography and other harmful content. CEOs of Meta, Snap, Discord, and X (formerly Twitter), among others, participated in the hearing and testified.
The committee opened with a paragraph in which the victim talked about the experience of being treated on social platforms and showed the parents of children who committed suicide after being exploited online.
Then, after being repeatedly asked by Republican Senator Josh Hawley to apologize to the victims, Zuckerberg turned to the large group of families behind him and said he was sorry for what they had been through.
The CEOs took the oath at the hearing of **Visual China.
"No one should have to go through what your family went through," he said. He added that Meta's industry-leading investment in safety-related aspects of teens** could prevent more families from experiencing similar things in the future.
Behind the CEOs, many are holding the depictions of their deceased loved ones and wearing badges that read "Stop Cyber Harm."
Parents hold the **wearing badges of their deceased loved ones** Visual China.
Senator Lindsey Graham, a Republican from South Carolina, said about the above. "Mr. Zuckerberg, you and the company ahead — I know you didn't mean it — but you have blood on your hands, and your products kill people. This speech quickly drew thunderous applause from the audience.
Senator Josh Hawley, Republican of Missouri, called on Zuckerberg as a billionaire to "compensate" families whose children have been affected by his platform.
Later, in response to a question from Senator Lafonza Butler, a California Democrat, Snap CEO Evan Spiegel also apologized to the family who died after buying drugs on Snapchat.
I'm sorry we couldn't have prevented these tragedies from happening," Spiegel said, before detailing some of the company's efforts to protect young users.
The hearing comes as Congress considers several proposed federal legislation targeting Silicon Valley groups, such as the controversial Child Safety Act, which would require platforms to protect children from harm. However, the Senate and the House of Representatives have so far failed to reach a consensus on the specific measures that should be taken. Bills such as the Safe Child Bill have been met with resistance from technology platforms and the **groups that represent them.
At the hearing, executives gave mixed responses to the current set of proposals. In his testimony, Zuckerberg called on lawmakers to enforce regulation, requiring Apple and Google Play to verify the age of young users. He reiterated the long-held claim that Meta has been introduced"More than 30 tools"to support a safe environment for youth**.
Matt Navarra, an analyst at the social media industry, told the BBC that he thought the hearing was no different from other similar hearings, including "a lot of American political grandstanding" and that Zuckerberg's apology provided the perfect photo opportunity.
Zuckerberg turned around and apologized to Visual China.
He added that while senators agreed on the need for bipartisan legislation to regulate platforms, the question of what would happen next remained unclear. "We've seen these hearings time and time again, and so far, they have often still not really generated any significant or substantial regulation. ”
As noted at the hearing, it's now 2024 and there is hardly any regulation of social ** companies in the United States. ”
During the hearing, the bosses revealed how many people they hired to manage the content on their platform.
Meta and TikTok are the platforms with the highest number of users among the platforms, each stating that they have 40,000 admins, while Snap says it has 2,300 admins, X has 2,000, and Discord (which claims to be smaller) has "hundreds".
Another notable issue is the monetization of user data. Senator Martha Blackburn confronted Zuckerberg by citing internal Meta documents that show the company estimates the lifetime value of teen users at $270.
How could you possibly have such an idea? It shocked me. Blackburn said, and then she invited a group of youth volunteers in the back row to stand. The volunteers wore T-shirts with the slogan "I'm worth more than $270."
Youth volunteers wear T-shirts with the slogan "I'm worth more than $270" Visual China.
Blackburn pointed out that children's information security is not Zuckerberg's top concern, and children's information is just a tool he uses to make money.
Senator John F. Kennedy, Republican of Louisiana, said Meta has become an "information killing field." "You've convinced more than 2 billion people to give up all of their personal information — every bit — in exchange for knowing what their high school friends ate on Saturday night," he told Zuckerberg. ”
When Kennedy asked if Facebook made it clear to its users how their data was being used for monetization by the platform, he said, "Is your user agreement still that bad?" ”
After the hearing, some of the parents in attendance held a rally outside, and some of them called on lawmakers to urgently pass legislation that would hold companies accountable.
Many parents still think that these injuries that we are talking about today will not affect their families, as I have done in the past. JoAnn Bogard said her son, Mason, died in May 2019 when he was involved in a choking challenge that was popular online.
These hurts can behave on our average child overnight," she said, "and we have testimonies." It's time for our legislators to pass the Child ** Safety Act. ”
Arturo Bejar, a former senior employee who testified before Congress in November 2023, was also present and told the BBC: "Meta is trying to shift the responsibility for creating a safe environment for teens onto parents, yet they haven't added a button that allows teens to report unwanted contact." ”
Without these measures, how can they provide safety for their teens? ”
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