Blumenthal shares emails between Nick Clegg and Zuckerberg
While addressing Zuckerberg, Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., shared emails between Zuckerberg and Nick Clegg, global affairs director for Meta.
In those emails, Clegg wrote: "We are not on track to succeed for our core well-being topics: problematic use, bullying and harassment connections and SSI."
SSI stands for "suicidal self-injury."
In a subsequent email, Clegg said the company's efforts on safety were being held back by a lack of investment.
"Nick Clegg was asking you, pleading with you, for resources to back up the narrative to fulfill the commitments," Blumenthal said. He added that Zuckerberg declined to hire a number of engineers Clegg had requested to help with the problem.
"We’ve done a calculation that those potentially 84 engineers would have cost Meta about $50 million in a quarter when it earned $9.2 billion," Blumenthal said.
Blumenthal did not allow Zuckerberg to reply.
In a heated exchange, Cruz blasted Zuckerberg over Meta’s “warning” screens that alert users of the possibility that content they are about to view could contain child sexual abuse images.
Showing a screenshot of the warning screen, Cruz asked why Meta would let users make the choice to see the problematic content.
“Senator, we take down anything that we think is sexual abuse material on the service,” Zuckerberg replied.
But that didn’t satisfy Cruz, who followed up by asking whether Meta has any data about the number of people who have seen the warning screen and then viewed CSAM.
“I’m not sure that we store that,” Zuckerberg said, pledging that he would personally follow up on the matter after the hearing.
Of all the senators so far, Cruz was by far the most combative, but I also had trouble following his points.
What is the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children?
Several of the tech CEOs have mentioned working with the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children to strengthen child safety on their platforms.
The nonprofit center seeks to find "missing children, reduce child sexual exploitation and prevent child victimization," according to its website. It has condemned tech companies for failing to protect children on their apps.
In a blog post published Wednesday, it said that “even those who have engaged in voluntary initiatives, including some companies testifying today, have fallen far short of implementing solutions that significantly protect children from harm.”
The center called today's hearing a "crucial moment in child safety" in the blog post.
The organization also posted its praise for the Senate Judiciary Committee's hearing on X.
"Holding social media companies accountable is a vital step in ensuring a safer online environment for our children," the post read.
X CEO's endorsed the Shield Act and said, “No one should have to endure nonconsensual images being shared online.”
Yaccarino's remarks follow a firestorm for X (formerly Twitter) after nonconsensual sexually explicit deepfakes of the pop star Taylor Swift went viral on the platform.
Congress members are sometimes criticized for not being the most tech savvy people, and that can show up in hearings.
So far today, the senators are coming with solid and substantive questions. We haven't really had any groan-worthy moments just yet, and I think that's meant the CEOs have had little chance to grandstand.
Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, questioned Zuckerberg about sexually explicit content on the platform.
Meta has strict policies against most sexually explicit content, and it appeared that Lee misunderstood Meta's policies.
When Zuckerberg said, "My understanding is that we don’t allow sexually explicit content,” Lee responded, "How is that going?"
The audience clapped and cheered in response to the question.
Meta frequently reports some of the highest rates of child sexual abuse material on its platforms annually to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.
In what might be the most direct statement of today's hearing so far, Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I., told the social media CEOs: "Your platforms really suck at policing themselves.”
Coons asks for support on bill, says CEOs give 'yawning silence'
As he closed his line of questioning, Coons mentioned his bill: The Platform Accountability and Transparency Act. He wrote the bill alongside Sens. Cassidy, Klobuchar, Cornyn, Blumenthal and Romney.
"Now that it’s in front of the Commerce Committee, not this committee, but it would set reasonable standards for disclosure and transparency to make sure that we’re doing our jobs based on data," Coons said.
He then asked if any of the CEOs would be "willing to say now that you support this bill."
After no one responded, Coons said: "Mr. Chairman, let the record reflect a yawning silence from the leaders of the social media platforms."
Here comes the encryption debate.
When Zuckerberg was asked about encryption and children, he brought up WhatsApp, in which people over the age of 13 can have accounts.
“And we do allow that to be encrypted,” he said.
Sen. Chris Coons, D-Conn., pushed for more transparency, asking the CEOs about whether their platforms disclose the exact number of posts that violate their child safety policies, particularly posts that depict or encourage suicide and self-harm.
Coons said platforms need to share more about "how the algorithms work, what the content does, and what the consequences are, not at the aggregate, not at the population level, but the actual numbers of cases so we can understand the content."
It's interesting that Coons is really pushing back on the classic tech company deflection that vile content or bad actors only represent tiny percentages of their overall platform.
“Not at the aggregate, not at the population level, but at the actual cases,” Coons said regarding how lawmakers want more concrete numbers on the kinds of harms and abuses that occur on their platform.