US Senators Accuse Big Tech of Endangering Children and Democracy

"Your products kill", "you have blood on your hands". American senators heavily attack the CEOs of Meta (Facebook, Instagram), X, TikTok, Snap and Discord in a hearing at the Justice Committee on the risks of social platforms for children and teenagers. "They are destroying human lives and threatening democracy. These companies need to be tamed and the worst is yet to come", accused South Carolina Republican Senator Lindsey Graham referring to Big Tech. His words were met with applause from dozens of parents holding pictures of their dead or traumatized children due to social media. Embarrassed, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg apologized directly to the families. "I'm sorry for everything you've had to go through. No one should go through what you've been through. That's why we've invested so much to ensure that others don't have to live what you've lived", he said, outlining the company's efforts: about 40,000 people in charge of online safety, over 20 billion dollars spent since 2016 and another two planned for this year. But the senators cited internal group documents according to which Zuckerberg refused to strengthen the teams in charge of identifying dangers for teenagers online. And Ted Cruz skewered him about a warning on Instagram that warned users of the risk of seeing an image with sexual abuse on minors but then still allowed it to be seen. "Mr. Zuckerberg, what the hell were you thinking?", he pressed. The Meta CEO justified himself by saying that it can be useful to redirect users to the source, rather than blocking the content. TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew also boasted efforts to protect minors, with 40,000 employees and 2 billion in planned investments for a platform that has over 170 million monthly users in the US. But he too ended up in the crosshairs for numerous episodes. Linda Yaccarino defended X by noting that it is not a platform chosen by young people and that a new department for content moderation will still be created. Moderation so far relaxed by patron Elon Musk, on whose social media this week even fake hard images of Taylor Swift appeared. The underlying problem is that the measures regularly announced by online platforms are considered insufficient by observers and authorities. And that various bills to protect minors have been lying around in Congress for a long time but so far none have been approved: the latest is that of Democratic Senator Dick Durbin, chairman of the Justice Committee, which allows tech companies to be prosecuted for their pedopornographic content and victims to sue. Congressional inaction has prompted American cities and states to go it alone. The mayor of New York has just branded social media as "an environmental toxin", "a danger to public health", announcing measures. Florida is about to legally ban social media for those under 16. In October, more than forty American states filed a complaint against Meta, believing that its platforms damage the "mental and physical health of young people", citing the risks of addiction, cyberbullying or eating disorders. Two months later, New Mexico sued Meta again, accusing its platforms of promoting child crime, from pedophilia to recommendation algorithms and criminal instigation.