Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) directly accused Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg and the heads of other Big Tech companies of bearing responsibility for the deaths of teenagers who died by suicide after encountering sexual exploitation or other harmful content on their platforms.
“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,” Graham said Wednesday in opening remarks for a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing at which Zuckerberg and other CEOs were testifying. “You have a product that’s killing people.”
Graham’s remarks, which also included a call for new legislation to prevent child sexual abuse material on social media, drew applause from attendees, many of whom were groups advocating laws that would force Big Tech companies to take additional action against harmful content on their platforms, as well as parents whose children died by suicide because of sexual exploitation or other toxic content on the platforms. Many of these parents held up pictures of their children while sitting in the hearing room, prompting Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL), the committee chairman, to remind attendees to “maintain the traditions of the committee.”
CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER
Zuckerberg and four other technology CEOs were asked to testify about their efforts to protect teenagers on their platforms.
Big Tech companies have updated their policies to provide additional protections to teenagers in preparation for this hearing. Meta announced in the last two weeks that it would increase privacy for teenage users, bar strangers from sending direct messages to minors, and share internal data with researchers. X announced on Sunday that it is hiring a new “Trust and Safety” team to handle content moderation on the platform and that X CEO Linda Yaccarino intended to meet with lawmakers on both sides of the aisle before the hearing.
