Tech Giant CEOs Face US Senate for Child Safety Hearing, Meta CEO Apologizes

The U.S. Senate questioned the CEOs of social media giants during the long-awaited child safety hearing and called to Congress to quickly pass the legislation that will protect children online.

During the hearing, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, X CEO Linda Yaccarino, Snap CEO Evan Spiegel, Discord CEO Jason Citron, and TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew shared their testimonies.

Meta CEO Apologizes to Affected Families of Social Media

During the hearing, the committee played a video where children spoke about their horrifying experiences on social media such as bullying, extortion, and more. The senators also shared how young people have taken their own lives after falling with sexual predators online.

Zuckerberg then addressed the families at the hearing after being challenged by Senator Josh Hawley. He faced parents who held up pictures of their children who claimed to have been harmed by social media.

"I'm sorry for everything you have all been through. No one should go through the things that your families have suffered and this is why we invest so much and we are going to continue doing industry-wide efforts to make sure no one has to go through the things your families have had to suffer," the CEO said.

Previously, a former Facebook employee exposed Meta for being well aware of the harmful effects of their platforms and that the company deliberately ignored the evidence.

X, TikTok Pledge Committment on Trust and Safety Efforts

Under the questioning, Chew stated that TikTok would spend more than $2 billion on trust and safety efforts. However, he declined to say the impact of the investment on the company's overall revenue.

Meanwhile, Yaccarino disclosed that X has increased its trust and safety team members by around 10% in the previous months. It was not specified how many employees are there in the team but X currently functions with only 2,300 workers around the world.

As for Snap, Spiegel had an apology to the parents whose children died from fentanyl overdoses that were purchased on the platform. He also added that the platform already blocks search terms related to drugs and is in cooperation with law enforcement.