(VitalNews.org) – The CEO of Meta, Mark Zuckerberg, is under immense pressure from lawmakers and decided to have a Senate hearing on Wednesday where he addressed issues and apologized to parents who have dealt with issues regarding Facebook.
Mark Zuckerberg was heard telling parents of victims who had been hurt or died due to the platform, that he was apologetic and felt remorse over what they had been through because of the Meta social media platform.
“I’m sorry for everything you’ve all gone through. It’s terrible. No one should have to go through the things that your families have suffered,” Mark Zuckerberg said at his hearing.
Zuckerberg, along with the CEO of X, Linda Yaccarino, and CEO of Snap, Evan Spiegel, as well as other leading social media executives have been facing senators as many are concerned about child exploitation and safety on their platforms. Shou Zi Chew, CEO of TikTok, and Jason Citron, CEO of Discord, were also at the hearing on Wednesday to speak about the effects of these social platforms on children.
Zuckerberg apologized after being asked if he had compensated the families of the victims. To which Zuckerberg responded, “Senator, my job is to make good tools.”
Lawmakers have made it clear that these companies should be expected to step up and properly address what they call a “plague of online child sexual exploitation.” The ultimate goal of the hearing is to convince firms to do more to protect children who are using their platforms.
In an opening statement, Senator Lindsey Graham said, “Mr. Zuckerberg, you have blood on your hands,” which was met with applause from the audience.
The hearing is meant to bring awareness to the exploitation and prevalence of child sexual abuse material on social media. Ultimately, the hearing was to bring awareness to these issues and push these companies to make changes to protect children who might be using their social media platforms.
This hearing is coming after Meta was recently hit with multiple lawsuits related to abuse concerning children on both Facebook and Instagram. In fact, a lawsuit was filed against Meta by New Mexico’s attorney general in December saying that the platforms enabled sexual predators to exploit children.
There has been no solution established yet, but there have been a few proposed solutions such as the Stop CASM Act, which would let victims of exploited children sue the reach platforms and app stores that promoted the exploitation.
We can expect to see changes here soon as these social platforms are being pushed for a solution.
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