AceNewsDesk – US senators have grilled leaders of the biggest social media companies with one lawmaker accusing them of having “blood on their hands” for failing to protect children from escalating threats of sexual predation on their platforms.

Ace Press News From Cutting Room Floor: Published: Feb.01: 2024: Reuters News Agency & AP News Agency: TELEGRAM Ace Daily News Link https://t.me/+PuI36tlDsM7GpOJe

The hearing marks the latest effort by lawmakers to address the concerns of parents and mental health experts that social media companies put profits over guardrails that would ensure their platforms do not harm children.

Children’s advocates and lawmakers say companies are not doing enough to protect them as they deal with several issues on social media including sexual predators, addictive features, suicide and eating disorders, unrealistic beauty standards and bullying.

“Mr Zuckerberg, you and the companies before us, I know you don’t mean it to be so, but you have blood on your hands,” Republican Senator Lindsey Graham said to Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg.

“You have a product that’s killing people.”

Senator Dick Durbin, the Judiciary Committee’s Democratic chairman, cited statistics from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children nonprofit group that showed skyrocketing growth in financial “sextortion,” in which a predator tricks a minor into sending explicit photos and videos.

“They’re responsible for many of the dangers our children face online,” he said in opening remarks.

“Their design choices, their failures to adequately invest in trust and safety, their constant pursuit of engagement and profit over basic safety have all put our kids and grandkids at risk.”

He added that the “disturbing growth in child sexual exploitation is driven by one thing: changes in technology.”

The hearing began with recorded testimony from kids and parents who said they or their children were exploited on social media. Throughout the hours-long event, parents who lost children to suicide silently held up pictures of their dead kids.

“I was sexually exploited on Facebook,” said one child in the video, who appeared in shadow.

In the hearing room, dozens of parents held pictures of their children who they said had been harmed due to social media.

Some parents jeered Mr Zuckerberg, whose company owns Facebook and Instagram, during his opening statement and shouted comments at other points during the hearing.

After grilling Mr Zuckerberg on what actions he had taken or if the parents were compensated, Senator Josh Hawley challenged the billionaire to apologise to the parents directly.

Mr Zuckerberg stood and turned away from his microphone and the senators to address them while several people held the children’s photos aloft.

He expressed regret about what they had experienced and pledged to work to prevent it from happening to others, but stopped short of taking responsibility for facilitating the abuse, as Senator Hawley suggested he should.

“I’m sorry for everything you have all been through. No one should go through the things that your families have suffered,” he said, adding that Meta continues to invest and work on “industry-wide efforts” to protect children.

In a tense exchange, the committee displayed copies of internal emails showing Mr Zuckerberg rejecting a request by Meta’s top policy executive to hire between 45 and 84 engineers to work on safety improvements.

“From a policy perspective, this work has become increasingly urgent over recent months. Politicians in the U.S., U.K., E.U. and Australia are publicly and privately expressing concerns about the impact of our products on young people’s mental health,” president of global affairs of Facebook Nick Clegg wrote in an August 2021 email.

The emails do not appear to include a response, if there was any, from Mr Zuckerberg.

X’s Ms Yaccarino said the company supported the STOP CSAM Act, legislation introduced by Senator Durbin that seeks to hold tech companies accountable for child sexual abuse material and would allow victims to sue tech platforms and app stores.

The bill is one of several aimed at addressing child safety. None have become law.

X has come under heavy criticism since Elon Musk bought the service and loosened moderation policies. This week, it blocked searches for pop singer Taylor Swift after fake sexually explicit images of her spread on the platform.

Wednesday also marked the first appearance by TikTok CEO Chew before US lawmakers since March, when the Chinese-owned short video app company faced harsh questions, including some suggesting the app was damaging children’s mental health.

Mr Chew disclosed more than 170 million Americans used TikTok monthly, 20 million more than the company said last year.

Under questioning by Senator Graham, he said TikTok would spend more than $US2 billion ($3 billion) on trust and safety efforts, but declined to say how the figure compared to the company’s overall revenue.

Senator Ted Cruz, a Republican, pressed Mr Zuckerberg about warning screens on Instagram that alerted users an image might show child sexual abuse, but still allowed them to see the image.

“Mr Zuckerberg, what the hell were you thinking?” he said.

Mr Zuckerberg responded that it can be helpful to redirect users to resources rather than blocking content, adding the company would follow up with more information about the notice.

Democratic Senator Amy Klobuchar questioned what she said was inaction in the tech industry, comparing it to the response shown when a panel blew out of a Boeing plane earlier this month.

“When a Boeing plane lost a door in flight several weeks ago, nobody questioned the decision to ground a fleet… So why aren’t we taking the same type of decisive action on the danger of these platforms when we know these kids are dying?” she said.

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