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The Story: Yesterday, the U.S. senate held a lively hearing with top social media CEOs including Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg, TikTok’s Shou Zi Chew, and X’s Linda Yaccarino. The conversation with the tech leaders revolved around what they are doing to protect children from harmful content on their platforms.

Republican Senators Lindsay Graham, Josh Hawley, Ted Cruz, and Tom Cotton were among the loudest critics during the hearing.

Hawley combatively asked Zuckerberg about the Senate testimony of a former Meta senior executive whistleblower who testified under oath, attesting many alarming stats. The whistleblower claimed that 37% of girls between 13 and 15 years old reported that they had been exposed to unwanted nudity on Instagram in the last seven days. 24% said they had experienced unwanted sexual advances on the app in the last seven days. And 17% said they had encountered self-harm content in the last seven days.

After interrogating Zuckerberg about the dangers of social media use for kids, Senator Hawley asked him to apologize to the victims of Meta’s platforms. Zuckerberg stood up, faced the families, and robotically said: “It's terrible. No one should have to go through the things that your families have suffered.” He continued, “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 families Zuckerberg was facing and speaking to all had a family member whose online experiences on Meta’s platforms led to them being cyber-bullied, developing body dysmorphia, self-harming, or even committing suicide.

South Carolina Republican Senator Lindsay Graham didn’t pull any punches when it was his turn to berate Meta’s CEO. In a slow southern drawl, he said, “Mr. Zuckerberg… you have blood on your hands. You have a product that’s killing people.”

Graham likened the danger of social media to cigarettes, but made the point that when cigarettes were killing people, the US government “did something about it.” He lamented that “nothing can be done” about the harms of social media as he believes Zuckerberg “can’t be sued.”

Tik Tok’s CEO Shou Zi Chew didn’t escape the torrent of accusatory questions either. Arkansas Republican Senator Tom Cotton interrogated the Singaporean CEO for several minutes on his ties to the Chinese Communist Party, to which Chew replied multiple times, “I’m Singaporean.”

Although the leaders of the most popular social media platforms took a verbal beating during the Senate hearing yesterday, there’s likely little that will be done legislatively. No meaningful bills have been passed by the US Congress relating to requirements for the protection of children on social media platforms.

We recommend you listen to this story. The senators don’t hold back…

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