“These companies must be reined in, or the worst is yet to come,” Senator Lindsey Graham, the top Republican on the committee, said. Singling out Meta Chief Executive Officer Mark Zuckerberg, Graham said he had “blood on his hands,” detailing a story of a child who was a victim of sexual exploitation. “You have a product that’s killing people,” he added. His comments were met with an uproar of applause and cheers from advocates in attendance.
Leaders from five social media platforms were admonished by lawmakers at a US Senate hearing to discuss child online safety, which began with videos and testimony from people who say they were sexually exploited on X, Facebook and Instagram.
The 21-member Senate Judiciary Committee called the chief executives of Meta Platforms Inc, X, Snap Inc, Discord Inc and TikTok to Washington in an effort to hold them accountable for their platforms’ impact on teenagers and children.
