The chief executive officer of Meta, parent company of Facebook and Instagram, Mark Zuckerberg was forced to apologise to the parents of children who killed themselves after being subjected to online sexual exploitation.
Zuckerberg made the apologies at the United States Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on the safety of children online on Wednesday.
“It’s terrible. No one should have to go through the things that your families have suffered,” Zuckerberg said to the parents behind him at the request of Republican Senator Josh Hawley of Missouri.
“And this is why we invest so much and are going to continue doing industry-leading efforts to make sure that no one has to go through the things your families have had to suffer.”
The CEOs of the five major social media companies were grilled by the US senators.
Dozens of mourning parents attended Wednesday’s Senate judiciary committee hearing, Big Tech and the Online Child Sexual Exploitation Crisis, many of them holding photographs of the children who died after falling prey to abusers on platforms such as Instagram, TikTok and Snapchat.
Executives in attendance were Meta CEO Zuckerberg, Snap CEO Spiegel, X (formerly Twitter) CEO Linda Yaccarino, TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew and Discord CEO Jason Citron.
Members of Congress questioned them for four hours, in exchanges that became heated on several occasions.
At the beginning of the hearing, each CEO gave a speech that outlined their position on their company’s competence in protecting children online.
Zuckerberg drew criticism from the parents for using his opening remarks to deny any relationship between social media usage and declines in mental health.
Stay ahead with the latest updates! Join The ConclaveNG on WhatsApp and Telegram for real-time news alerts, breaking stories, and exclusive content delivered straight to your phone. Don’t miss a headline — subscribe now!
