Mark Zuckerberg Addresses Families Of Victims Of Online Child Exploitive Content After Senator Presses Him To Apologize

Live reporting from Senate Judiciary Committee hearing (now over). Start at the bottom.

https://deadline.com/2024/01/mark-zuckerberg-facebook-senate-online-child-exploitation-1235809574/

Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Dick Durbin (D-IL) blamed the tech platforms at the outset for allowing the exploitation to proliferate, while dismissing the latest efforts the companies have taken to boost safety.

“They are responsible for many of the dangers our children face online,” Durbin said, calling it a “crisis in America.”

“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 is killing people,” said the top Republican on the committee, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC), told Zuckerberg, as he sat at the witness table.

He called for the repeal of Section 230, the provision of a 1996 law that shielded platforms from liability for the third party content posted on their sites. Durbin has proposed legislation that, among other things, would hold companies liable for civil damages for the ” intentional, knowing, or reckless promotion or facilitation” of childhood sexually exploitive content.

Graham noted that Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) and Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) had found “emails from your company where they warned you about this stuff, and you decided not to hire 45 people that could do a better job of policing this.”

“So the bottom line is, you can’t be sued. You should be, and these emails would be great for punitive damages,” Graham said.

Zuckerberg stared intently at Graham as he faced his criticism.