In a hostile Senate hearing held Wednesday that at times erupted into altercations, lawmakers across the political spectrum accused social media companies of failing to protect young people online, and pushed for rules that would hold Big Tech accountable for child suicide and child sexual exploitation.
The Senate Judiciary Committee hearing in Washington, D.C., is the latest step in a bipartisan effort to tighten federal regulation of social media platforms such as Instagram and TikTok, arguing that the services are undermining the well-being and health of young people. A growing chorus of parents and youth mental health experts are warning that children are suffering from cancer, which in some cases has driven them to suicide.
In an unprecedented moment, Mark Zuckerberg, Meta's founder and CEO, stood up at the urging of Missouri Republican Sen. Josh Hawley, turned to the audience, and said that children had been harmed. He apologized to the parents of those in attendance who said they suffered. , died due to his company's algorithm.
“I'm sorry for everything you've been through,” Zuckerberg, who runs Facebook and Instagram, said. “It's terrible. No one should have to go through what your family suffered.”
Senators say that under strict regulations restricting children's access to social media platforms and limiting their exposure to harmful content, corporations and technology executives themselves should be held legally responsible for abuse and exploitation. He claimed that.
“Your platforms are really bad at policing themselves,” Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, D-Rhode Island, told the CEOs of Meta, X, TikTok, Discord and Snap, who were called to testify. he said. Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act allows social media platforms to moderate content as they see fit, generally indemnifies them from liability for user-generated posts, and routinely holds technology companies accountable. I have protected it from He said such legal protections are “a very important part of the problem” as young people continue to be harmed.
White House alleges sex traffickers manipulated X, formerly known as Twitter, into sharing sexually explicit videos of themselves on Snapchat when they were just 13 years old2 He pointed to a lawsuit filed by a man. Years later, a link to the video was posted on Twitter, but the company allegedly refused to take action until it was contacted by Department of Homeland Security officials and the post had been viewed more than 160,000 times. . The case was dismissed in May by the Ninth Circuit citing Section 230.
“This is a pretty damning fact,” Whitehouse said. “There is nothing about this set of facts that suggests to me that Section 230 served any public service in that regard.”
In his opening statement, Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., gave a chilling account of the harm being done to young people by social media platforms at the hearing. In addition to Zuckerberg, executives who testified included X CEO Linda Yaccarino, TikTok CEO Hsu Chiu, Snap co-founder and CEO Evan Spiegel, and Discord CEO Jason Citron. .
“Discord has been used to groom, kidnap and abuse children,” Durbin said. “Meta's Instagram helped connect and facilitate a network of pedophiles. Disappeared Snapchat messages are being appropriated by criminals who extort money from young victims. TikTok is a predator has become the “platform of choice” for accessing, engaging and preparing children for abuse. And its spread is [child sexual abuse material] on X has grown as companies have eviscerated trust and safety for their employees. ”
Citron testified that Discord has a “zero tolerance policy” for content that features sexual exploitation and uses filters to scan and block such content from the service.
“As with any technology or tool, there are people who abuse and misuse our platform for immoral and illegal purposes,” Citron said. “To all of us here on this panel today, and to the entire technology industry, we have the solemn and urgent need to ensure that everyone who uses our platforms, both online and offline, is protected from these criminals. are responsible.”
Lawmakers introduced a series of regulatory bills with bipartisan support, but none passed. Among them: Kids Online Safety, which requires social media companies and other online services to take “reasonable steps” to protect children from content that promotes cyberbullying, sexual exploitation and self-harm. It also includes the law. It would also require strict privacy settings for teens when using online services. Other proposals would require social media companies to report suspected drug activity to police (some parents claim their children have overdosed and died after buying drugs on their platforms); It also includes legislation that would hold social media companies accountable for hosting child sexual abuse material.
In their testimony, technology company executives said they have implemented measures to protect children using their services, including features that restrict certain types of content, limit screen time, and limit who they can communicate with. He said he had taken action. But they also sought to keep their services out of harm's way to avoid regulation.
“So much of our lives are spent on mobile devices and social media, so it's important to investigate the impact on teenagers' mental health and well-being,” Zuckerberg said. “I take this very seriously. Mental health is a complex issue and the existing body of scientific research does not show a causal link between social media use and poor mental health in young people. not.”
Zuckerberg pointed to a recent analysis by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine showing that social media is driving changes in the well-being of youth at a population level, and that the service could have both benefits and benefits. It concluded that there was insufficient evidence to confirm. Harmful to young people. Researchers noted that while social media websites can expose children to online harassment and extremist ideology, the services can be used by young people to foster community.
In October, 42 state attorneys general filed a lawsuit against Mehta, alleging that the social media giant knowingly and intentionally designed tools to get children addicted to its services. US Surgeon General Vivek Murthy issued an advisory last year warning that social media sites pose a “risk of significant harm” to young people's mental health, and tools must carry warning labels. said. Among the damaging evidence is a leaked internal study from Meta, which found that Instagram caused body image issues in teenage girls, with many young users blaming it for increased anxiety and depression. It turned out that it was.
Republican lawmakers spent considerable time during the hearing accusing TikTok of collecting data on American citizens, including to monitor American journalists, and criticizing TikTok's relationship with the Chinese government. The Justice Department is reportedly investigating ByteDance, the Chinese company that owns TikTok, for allegedly using the app to monitor several American journalists covering the technology industry.
In response, Chu said the company launched an initiative called “Project Texas” to prevent Chinese employees from accessing personal data of U.S. citizens. But employees claim the company is struggling to deliver on its promises.
Neil Mohan, CEO of Google-owned YouTube, was not called to testify, but a 2023 Gallup poll found that YouTube and TikTok are popular among teenagers. It is by far the platform on which I spend the most time each day.
Mainstream social media platforms are also being exploited by domestic online extremism. For example, earlier this month, the teenager accused of carrying out a mass shooting at an Iowa high school maintains an active presence on Discord, and shortly before the assault he posted a message dedicated to such attacks. He reportedly commented on his channel that he was “preparing”. For mayhem. Minutes before the shooting, the suspect apparently recorded a video inside the school bathroom and uploaded it to TikTok.
Josh Golin, executive director of Fairplay, a nonprofit organization dedicated to strengthening child protection online, slammed the tech executives' testimony as nothing more than “evasions and evasions.”
“If Congress truly cared about the families who packed into today's hearing with photos of their children lost to social media abuse, they would enact the Kids Online Safety Act,” Golin said in a statement. . “Sharp questions and name-calling won't save lives, but KOSA will.”
The security law, known as KOSA, argues that the proposal could be used to censor certain content and violate the privacy of all internet users, citing First Amendment concerns. It has faced backlash from advocacy groups. Sen. Marsha Blackburn, Republican of Tennessee and co-author of KOSA, said last fall that the rule was important to protect “minor children from transgender people in this culture,” and the bill was He cited it as a way to protect children from being “indoctrinated” online. The Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank, supported the bill, saying of X: “Keeping trans content away from children is protecting children.”
Snap's Evan Spiegel and X's Linda Yaccarino both agreed to support the Kids Online Safety Act.
Aliya Bhatia, a policy analyst at the nonprofit Center for Democracy and Technology, said while lawmakers have made clear their intention to act, their directives could do more harm than good. Ta. She said these platforms serve as “peer-to-peer learning and community networks,” allowing young people to access information about reproductive health and other important topics that they may be reluctant to receive from the adults in their lives. He said he would.
“It's clear that this is a really difficult issue. It's very difficult for governments and businesses to determine what is harmful to young people,” Bhatia said. “What one young person finds online helpful, another may find harmful.”
Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, the top Republican on the committee, said social media companies cannot be trusted to keep children safe online and that lawmakers have run out of patience.
“If you wait for them to solve the problem, we will die waiting,” he said.
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