Republican Senators obliterated Meta owner Mark Zuckerberg during a Senate hearing Wednesday, exposing how his big tech platform failed to address child sexual abuse material, which directly led to the deaths of children.
Zuckerberg looked worse for worse after hearing and was not only humiliated but also had to stand and ace the families of victims of children who had suffered because of his lack of oversight.
He was also told he should be sued for gross dereliction of duty.
The hearing, titled ‘Big Tech and the Online Child Sexual Exploitation Crisis,’ saw Senator Ted Cruz accuse Zuckerberg of helping pedophiles gain access to child porn on Facebook.
“Every parent in America is terrified about the garbage that is directed at our kids,” Cruz told Zuckerberg.
“The phones they have are portals to predators…and each of your companies could do a lot more to prevent it”.
Cruz then cited a recent Wall Street Journal investigation, saying:
“What was particularly concerning…was the degree to which Instagram’s own algorithm was promoting the discoverability of victims for pedophiles seeking child abuse material.”
“In other words, this material wasn’t just living on the dark corners of Instagram. Instagram was helping pedophiles find it by promoting graphic hashtags,” Cruz continued.
The Senator then showed a warning screen that Instagram offers for users who search for such material, admitting that it may be child porn and giving a link to “see results anyway.”
“Mr. Zuckerberg, what the hell were you thinking?” Cruz asked.
A squirming Zuckerberg attempted to suggest that a second link on the screen offers resources for people to get “help.”
“I understand ‘get resources,'” Cruz fired back.
“In what sane universe is there a link to ‘see results anyway’?”
Zuckerberg then claimed the algorithm might get it wrong, so there is a need for the link to “see results anyway.”
However, Cruz continued to grill Zuckerberg, demanding he commit to providing figures on how many times the warning window was offered and how many times the “see results anyway” was clicked.
But Zuckerberg said he had “no idea,” refusing to comply with the demand.
Meanwhile, Senator Josh Hawley asked Zuckerberg a direct question, “who did you fire for this?”
Yet again, Zuckerberg failed to provide an answer, stating, “Senator, we studied all of this because it’s important, and we want to improve our services.”
“Well, you just told me a second ago that you studied it, but that there’s no linkage. Who did you fire?” Hawley further pressed.
“Thirty-seven percent of teenage girls between 13 and 15 were exposed to unwanted nudity in a week on Instagram. You knew about it. Who did you fire?”
“I’m not gonna answer that,” Zuckerberg eventually answered.
“Because you didn’t fire anybody, right?” Hawley shot back.
“You didn’t take any significant action.”
“Senator, I don’t think it’s appropriate to talk about, like, any kind of HR decisions,” Zuckerberg responded.
Then Hawley let loose.
“It’s not appropriate? Do you know who’s sitting behind you?” Hawley asked.
“You’ve got families from across the nation whose children are either severely harmed or gone, and you don’t think it’s appropriate to talk about steps that you took? The fact that you didn’t fire a single person?”
“Let me ask you this, let me ask you this: Have you compensated any of the victims?” He asked, prompting Zuckerberg to admit he has not and then to face the families in question and apologize for the “things that your families have suffered.”
Zuckerberg, looking totally destroyed, pathetically attempted to repeat his robotic tropes about “building tools” to “keep online communities safe” and the issue being “complicated.”
“Nonsense. Your product is killing people. Will you personally commit to compensating the victims?” Hawley asked.
“You’re a billionaire. Will you commit to compensating the victims? Will you set up a compensation fund with your money?”
Zuckerberg failed gain to commit to any such suggestions.
The hearing exposed how Zuckerberg’s social media empire is essentially a cesspool for pedophiles while having no problem with banning conservative sites from the platform.
It was satisfying to see Zuckerberg being pulled into account for allowing such child abuse material to run rampant on Facebook.
READ: Facebook’s Metaverse Division Records $3.7 Billion Loss, Total Losses over $21 Billion
