Durbin says hearing is 'long overdue'
Senate Judiciary Chairman Dick Durbin, D-Ill, tells us this hearing, featuring five CEOs of the most popular social media apps, is “long overdue.”
The subject of the hearing today is child sexual exploitation though he expects other issues will certainly come up.
“Terrible things are happening,” Durbin told us. “The numbers that come back to this tell us the exploitation of children are growing by leaps and bounds. What are we doing about it? We’re clinging to old law that which basically exempts this industry from liability.”
The committee had to issue subpoenas to get three of the CEOs to attend today (Snapchat, Discord and X). Durbin says he was amazed they had to send U.S. Marshals to Discord and X because they refused to cooperate.
“They must think they’re so far above the law it doesn’t matter,” he said.
His biggest question today? One suggested by his daughter who has 12-year-old twins.
“She said ‘Dad, ask these executives how they protect their own kids?’”
It's not even 9 a.m. yet and the room is already starting to fill with journalists. Nameplates for the five CEOs were just placed in front of the seats facing the senators.
There is a line outside the room for those hoping to get a seat inside. We don’t know exactly how the CEOs will enter this large hearing room in the Dirksen Senate Office Building but hope they may pass our cameras. We’re aware that there are other back routes for them to enter as well.
Parents of kids harmed through social media will be in attendance
Sitting in the front row of the hearing room today we expect to see 20 parents wearing black and holding photos of their children. More parents will be behind them.
All of them lost kids after something happened on a social media site — whether harassment, sexual exploitation, drug sales leading to fentanyl overdoses or other issues.
Sam Chapman lost his son Sammy in 2021. I first spoke with him and his wife, Laura Berman, just days afterward, and their grief was palpable and heartbreaking.
A dealer connected with Sammy on Snapchat and gave him a pill containing a deadly dose of fentanyl. He died in his bedroom.
Sam Chapman reached out to many of the parents who will attend today to make sure they’d be present in the room. They all want to send a message to these CEOs.
“We’ve been asked to give questions to the senators. So what we’re hoping is that there’s some very pointed questions about why they’re letting so many children die on their platforms, why they’re letting so many children be abused on their platforms, without changing,” Chapman told me last night.
I asked him what he personally wants to hear today.
“I want to know how they can sleep at night,” Chapman said, “knowing that they’re accessory to murder, over and over again.”
Snap issues support for KOSA
Ahead of the hearing, Snap issued its support for the Kids Online Safety Act, or KOSA.
“Many of the provisions in KOSA are consistent with our existing safeguards: we set teens’ accounts to the strictest privacy settings by default, provide additional privacy and safety protections for teens, offer in-app parental tools and reporting tools, and limit the collection and storage of personal information,” a spokesperson for the platform said in an email statement.
Snap CEO Evan Spiegel is among the five CEOs who will testify.
TikTok's CEO Shou Zi Chew returns to Congress
Last March, when a potential TikTok ban was being floated by lawmakers and the Biden administration, the platform's CEO, Shou Zi Chew, testified before lawmakers in a hearing that lasted roughly five hours.
Chew spoke before a House Energy and Commerce Committee hearing titled “TikTok: How Congress Can Safeguard American Data Privacy and Protect Children from Online Harms.”
Members grilled the CEO about the Chinese-owned platform, citing concerns about privacy for Americans’ data, protections for children online and TikTok’s connection to the Chinese Communist Party.
In his opening statement, Chew emphasized TikTok is safe and secure and that it shouldn’t be banned.
Chew will appear before Congress again today, this time to specifically address child exploitation and safety concerns alongside other tech CEOs.
Read NBC News' investigation on Discord
Discord, which launched in 2015, quickly emerged as a hub for online gamers, growing through the pandemic. It has since become a destination for communities devoted to topics as varied as crypto trading, YouTube gossip and K-pop.
In a 2023 review of international, national and local criminal complaints, news articles and law enforcement communications published since Discord was founded, NBC News identified 35 cases over the past six years in which adults were prosecuted on charges of kidnapping, grooming or sexual assault that allegedly involved communications on the platform.
Experts have suggested that Discord’s young user base, decentralized structure and multimedia communication tools, along with its recent growth in popularity, have made it a particularly attractive location for people looking to exploit children.
Ahead of the hearing, a spokesperson for Discord said that it has a zero-tolerance policy for child sexual abuse and that it uses a mix of proactive and reactive tools to moderate the platform.
“Over 15% of our workforce is dedicated to trust and safety full time. We prioritize issues that present the highest real-world harm to our users and the platform, including child sexual abuse material,” the spokesperson said.
Read more of NBC News' reporting on Discord here.
X says it is 'not the platform of choice for children and minors'
Ahead of Wednesday's hearing, X published a blog post saying the platform has “zero tolerance for Child Sexual Exploitation (CSE), and we are determined to make X inhospitable for actors who seek to exploit minors.”
X also said that the platform, formerly known as Twitter, is "not the platform of choice for children and minors."
"Users between 13-17 account for less than 1% of our U.S daily users," the blog post states.
X CEO Linda Yaccarino, a former NBCUniversal executive who was announced as the platform's new CEO in May, will testify before lawmakers for the first time.
Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg has been grilled by lawmakers before
Mark Zuckerberg has been in the hot seat before.
Meta, which owns Instagram and Facebook, has faced criticism surrounding how it handles problematic content targeting younger users.
Last year, a Wall Street Journal investigation revealed that Meta knew Instagram created significant mental health issues for its teenage users, citing internal documents.
In October, a bipartisan group of 42 attorneys general sued Meta, alleging features on Facebook and Instagram are addictive and are aimed at kids and teens.
In a blog post published Thursday, Meta said it wants teens to have “age-appropriate experiences on our apps.”
The company said it has developed more than 30 tools to help teens and their parents cultivate safe experiences on its platforms and that it spent “over a decade developing policies and technology to address content and behavior that breaks our rules.”
Here are the tech CEOs that are testifying
- Jason Citron, CEO of Discord
- Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Meta
- Evan Spiegel, CEO of Snap
- Shou Zi Chew, CEO of TikTok
- Linda Yaccarino, CEO of X