Republican Senator Lindsey Graham slammed Mark Zuckerberg on Wednesday during a hearing about online child sexual exploitation, saying that the Meta CEO has "blood" on his hands.
"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. You have a product that's killing people," Graham said during a hearing for the Senate Judiciary Committee.
Newsweek reached out to Meta via email for comment.
The Context:
On Wednesday, the committee held a hearing called "Big Tech and the Online Child Sexual Exploitation Crisis," where they will hear testimony from Zuckerberg and other tech leaders such as TikTok CEO Shou Chew and Linda Yaccarino, the CEO of X, formerly Twitter.
Announcing the hearing last week, the Senate Judiciary Committee and Chairman Dick Durbin said they "have extensively examined and investigated the plague of online child sexual exploitation through hearings, legislation, and oversight efforts."
"This hearing will build on that work and highlight the need for Congress to act on the bipartisan bills reported by the Committee," the committee said.
"You have a product that's killing people," Graham told Zuckerberg. "You want to talk about guns, we have the ATF. Nothing here. There's not a damn thing anybody can do about it. You can't be sued."
What we know:
In June 2023, U.S. Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy published an advisory to parents warning of the dangers of social media for young children and adolescents.
"Children and adolescents on social media are commonly exposed to extreme, inappropriate, and harmful content and frequent social media use can contribute to poor mental health, including depression and anxiety," the advisory said.
Views:
During the hearing on Wednesday, Zuckerberg said that "the existing body of scientific work has not shown a causal link between using social media and young people having worse mental health."
In his opening statement, Zuckerberg also spoke about Meta's safety features, saying, "Keeping young people safe online has been a challenge since the internet began."
"No matter how much we invest or how effective our tools are, there's always more to learn and more improvements to make," Zuckerberg added.
Center for Countering Digital Hate CEO and founder Imran Ahmed said, "Parents used to worry about where their kids were at 10 p.m...These days, they may be physically present, but we don't know who they're spending time with online and what they're being exposed to every day."
What's Next:
In February 2023, the Senate Judiciary Committee passed several pieces of legislation seeking to combat dangers to young children associated with social media such as the the STOP CSAM Act, which supports victims and increases accountability and transparency for online platforms."
Update 1/31/24, 11:34 a.m. ET: This story has been updated with additional information and to reflect that Newsweek reached out to Meta for comment.
Update 1/31/24, 12:23 p.m. ET: This story has been updated with additional information.
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