Five social media CEOs were questioned, and Zuckerberg unexpectedly got up to apologize to the victim's parents, but refused to compensate
On January 31, local time, the CEOs of the five major social media platforms in the United States were asked to go to Capitol Hill to participate in Senate hearings and be cross-examined by Republican senators about how they protect teenagers and children on their respective apps.
The CEOs of the top five social media platforms include Mark Zuckerberg, owner of Facebook and Instagram, Linda Yaccarino, CEO of Platform X (formerly Twitter), Shouzi Zhou, CEO of TikTok, Evan Spiegel, founder and CEO of Snapchat, and Jensen Hitron, CEO of Discord.
Senator Lindsey Graham opened the meeting with a "passionate" denunciation of the five tech giants, claiming that their platform "kills young people." But then Graham pointed the finger at Meta, the parent company of Zuckerberg's Facebook and Instagram.
"Mr. Zuckerberg, you and a couple of other companies, I know you didn't mean to, but you have blood on your hands," Graham said in a vehemently toned tone, your product kills, and when we say cigarettes are deadly, we take some measures, and of course maybe not enough. You're going to talk about guns, but we have ATF (regulation), but there's nothing here, no one can restrict (social media), you can't even be prosecuted.
In addition to the five executives and senators, the parents of the minor victims held up their children's photos and denounced social media for "killing" their children.
Rep. Brandon Guffey of South Carolina was one of the fathers who lost their son, Gavin Guffey, who committed suicide last year at the age of 17. Gavin was blackmailed before committing suicide, and scammers posed as girls to get Gavin to send "naked photos" and then demanded cash by threatening that he would send them to everyone he knew.
It is reported that father Brandon is suing Zuckerberg's Meta for wrongful death and gross negligence. He claimed that the company did not do enough to protect minors from cyber predators.
The Senate committee played a video during the hearing in which young people spoke about being bullied on social media platforms. The five CEOs can be seen turning around to watch with serious expressions.
After the video ended, Senator Josh Hawley asked, "Do you guys now want to apologize to the victims who have been harmed by your products?"
Zuckerberg, now 39, stood up and turned to face the back of the room, which was also considered a shocking move.
"I'm sorry for what you've been through," Zuckerberg said, "and no one should have to go through what your family has been through. "That's why we're investing so much money, and we're continuing to make an industry-wide effort to make sure no one goes through what your family is suffering again. ”
After the apology, Zuckerberg was pressed by Hawley to ask, "Does Meta plan or has provided financial compensation to the families of victims of online exploitation or through support resources such as counseling?"
"I don't think so," Zuckerberg flatly denied, "our job is just to build tools to help keep people safe on our platform." ”
That is, a public apology can, but compensation, that can't happen.