CEOs of tech giants Meta, X, TikTok, Snap i Discord were questioned before the US Congress on Wednesday. In this way, politicians wanted to investigate “the plague of child sexual abuse on the Internet.”
At some point Republican Party Senator Josh Hawley He asked Mark Zuckerberg, the head of Meta, the owner of Facebook, whether he had the opportunity to apologize to the parents of harmed children. Zuckerberg denied this, to which Hawley replied: “Would you like to do it now?” On national television?
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The Meta leader then turned to the parents present in the room. – I’m sorry for everything you’ve been through. “Nobody should have to go through what your families went through,” he said.
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Zuckerberg added, “that’s why we’re investing so heavily and will continue to make industry-wide efforts to make sure no one has to go through this.” At the time parents they held up photos of their dead children who had been harassed or sexually abused via social media.
CEO of Snap Inc Evan Spiegel made a similar appeal to people whose children had access to drugs through Snapchat. Parents of over 60 teenagers they filed a lawsuit in this regard once morest the owner of the application at the end of last year. “I am very sorry that we were not able to prevent these tragedies,” Spiegel said.
Senator Lindsey Graham, a Republican from South Carolina, accused tech companies of “destroying lives and threatening democracy itself.” – I know you don’t want it to be like this, but you have blood on your hands – he said, quoted by the Guardian.
The central point of the hearing was the Children’s Online Safety Act. The bill was supported by many groups. In turn, critics have serious concerns regarding privacy and censorship.
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