There was nowhere to hide for Facebook’s founder, Mark Zuckerberg, a pioneer who sparked the social media era.
Social media bosses were stuck to answer why the regulation landscape has virtually not advanced since 2004. Children as young as 13 years-old are able to create a free account on Facebook or Instagram’s platforms. The pointed questions from senators put tech CEOs under pressure to apologise to the families of victims looking on. It marked the first time some CEOs had faced up to public interrogation by U.S. lawmakers wanting to know what changes had been implemented by their sites to protect children.
For Mark Zuckerberg it was the eighth time. He turned to the families, issuing an apology on behalf of Meta companies.
“I’m sorry for everything you have all been through. No one should go through the things that your families have suffered and this is why we invest so much, and we are going to continue doing industry-wide efforts to make sure no one has to go through the things your families have had to suffer.”
Social media bosses, who currently have control over their own sites, were warned to take action to avoid regulations “putting them out of business”.
Some critics described a summit of tech CEOs with “lots of US political grandstanding”
“We’ve seen these hearings time and time again and they have often, so far, led still to not actually generate any significant or substantial regulation”.
