Mark Zuckerberg apologizes directly to families of online harm victims at Senate hearing – live | Technology

Meta is the world’s ‘single largest marketplace for paedophiles’, says New Mexico attorney general

In an interview with the Guardian, New Mexico’s top legal official Raúl Torrez talks about taking Facebook and Instagram’s parent company to court.

In December 2023, Torrez launched a major lawsuit against Meta, claiming that the company has allowed its social media platforms to become marketplaces for child predators.

Torrez tells the Guardian he believes that what his own investigation has already uncovered is “just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to how widespread and well known this problem was inside the company”. He said he expects further details to emerge about its knowledge of child sexual exploitation on its platforms.

Following an intense line of questioning with Mark Zuckerberg, Republican senator Josh Hawley asked the Meta executive if he would like to apologize to families of victims who are sitting in the audience of today’s Senate hearing, many of whom hold photos of children they say died or were harmed due to his platform.

Zuckerberg stood up from the microphone, turned around to face the audience, and began to speak.

“I’m sorry for everything you’ve all gone through,” he said. “Nobody should have to go through what your families have suffered. This is why we have invested so much and are going to continue industry leading efforts to make sure that no one has to go through the types of things your families have suffered.”

Ted Cruz is screaming at Mark Zuckerberg over child abuse content on Instagram. He noted that if users search for hashtags related to CSAM (Child Sexual Abuse Material) the platform warns users that the content may be illegal and gives them the option to click through and see it.

“Mr Zuckerberg, what the hell were you thinking?” Cruz yelled during the hearing.

Cruz asked how many times this warning screen has been served to users. Zuckerberg said he did not know but will “personally look into this” and follow up with the committee.

Senator Lindsey Graham targeted Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg with questions about a teenage Instagram user who died by suicide after being targeted by a sextortion ring via the platform, asking the executive if he believes the family of the victim should be able to sue the company.

“I think that they can,” Zuckerberg responded. Graham retorted that such lawsuits are often thrown out due to section 230, and promoted bipartisan legislation that would more easily allow victims to take companies to court.

In a tense line of questioning, the Republican senator asked top tech executives if they supported such legislation, and noted that they refused to answer directly with a “yes” or “no”.

“The bottom line, I’ve come to conclude, is that you aren’t going to support any of this,” he said. “If you’re waiting on these guys to solve the problem, we’re going to die waiting.”

In her opening statements before Congress, X chief executive officer Linda Yaccarino said the company endorses the Stop CSAM Act, a bill introduced by Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL) that would remove legal immunity for civil claims against internet companies over child sex abuse material.

“You have my personal commitment that X will be active and a part of this solution,” Yaccarino said. “X believes that the freedom of speech and platform safety can and must coexist. We agree that now is the time to act with urgency.”

Durbin thanked her for being the “first social media company” to publicly endorse the act. “It is our honor, chairman,” she replied. Yaccarino said in her opening remarks that X had bolstered its resources for dealing with child sexual abuse material, though how much is unclear: Elon Musk reduced the size of the company by more than half, including its trust and safety teams.

Yaccarino stopped short of endorsing the Kids Online Safety Act (Kosa), another bill meant to target section 230 immunity for social media firms that was recently endorsed by the Snapchat parent company. But she said X “supports the progress” of the bill. Snap’s Evan Spiegel has endorsed the measure.

Kosa and the Stop CSAM act have been flagged by civil and digital rights groups for potential privacy and freedom-of-speech violations, due in part to their targeting of encryption tools as well as potential use of such bills to target LGBTQ content misidentified as dangerous.

Instagram whistleblower says emails show wellbeing was never priority at Meta

Dan Milmo

Arturo Béjar, a former senior engineer and consultant at Meta who testified in Washington in November about what he described as child safety failings at the company. He said emails released in advance of the hearing showed executives and Zuckerberg failing to act on issues like suicide ideation.

“If this work was a priority, there would be a thousand engineers and product managers on well-being. This is a company with over 30,000 engineers,” he told the Guardian.

Meta rejected greater investment in child safety, internal documents show

Dan Milmo

Mark Zuckerberg was asked for more resources to increase teen wellbeing on his platforms by senior lieutenant Sir Nick Clegg in 2021, according to emails released by Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) ahead of Wednesday’s hearing.

Clegg, then vice‑president for global affairs and communications at the Facebook and Instagram owner, asked for more investment in August 2021 to “strengthen our position on well-being across the company.” he said the matter was becoming urgent as “politicians in the US, UK, EU and Australia are publicly and privately expressing concerns about the impact of our products on young people’s mental health.” He said the company’s efforts on addressing wellbeing concerns among users was “being held back by a lack of investment”.

In one reply to Clegg, Sheryl Sandberg, then chief operating officer at Meta, said she was “supportive” of the investment request but “we have overall budgeting issues across the board so no promises on what will happen.”

“The hypocrisy is mind-boggling,” Blumenthal told The New York Times. “We’ve heard time and time again how much they care and are working on this, but the documents show a very different picture.”

In response to criticism of its efforts to safeguard children’s well-being, Meta has said it employs 40,000 people to improve trust and safety and has invested $20bn in such efforts since 2016.

The congressional hearing investigating online sexual and other exploitation of children is under way, with executives from Meta, X, TikTok, Snap, and Discord sharing prepared statements.

Ahead of the statements, Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL) noted that Mark Zuckerberg of Meta and Shou Zi Chew of TikTok were appearing voluntarily, whereas Linda Yaccarino of X (formerly Twitter), Evan Spiegel of Snap, and Jason Citron of Discord had to be subpoenaed and forced to appear.

“I hope this is not a sign of your commitment or lack of commitment to addressing serious issue before us,” he said.

After being sworn in, the executives began their testimonies, focusing largely on what tools their platforms have released to protect kids online. Many of them mentioned their own children and expressed their commitment to protecting kids online.

“All of us here on this panel today throughout the tech industry have a solemn and urgent responsibility to ensure that everyone who uses our platform is protected from these criminals, both online and off,” Citron said in his opening statements.

Zuckerberg stated that Meta has introduced more than 30 such tools over the last eight years, including controls that let parents set time limits for app usage and see who their children are following and engaging with online. He added that Meta has spent $20bn on safety and security since 2016 and employs about 40,000 people to address such concerns.

“We build technologies to tackle the worst online risks and share it to help our whole industry get better,” he said.

Zuckerberg sought to shift more responsibility for children’s safety online to Apple and Google, which operate the world’s biggest app stores. His company made a similar point last year when it called for legislation that would require parental approval for app purchases and downloads by teens.

Shou Zi Chew of TikTok cited the app’s “robust community guidelines”, including family pairing tools like setting screen time limits and filtering out certain content. He stated TikTok has more than 40,000 trust and safety professionals and expect to invest more than $2bn in trust and safety efforts in 2024 alone.

“Keeping kids safe online requires a collaborative effort as well as collective action,” he said. “We’ve shared the community’s concern and commitment to protect young people online. We welcome the opportunity to work with you on legislation to achieve this goal.”

Evan Spiegel of Snap, like other executives, acknowledged the victims of online harms in the room and parents of children who have been impacted by online harms.

“Words cannot begin to express the profound sorrow. I feel that a service you designed to bring people happiness and joy has been abused to cause harm,” he said. “I want to be clear that we understand our responsibility to keep our community safe.”