Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg addressed the families of victims harmed online present at Wednesday’s congressional hearing, standing up to apologize for all they have gone through.
Senator Josh Hawley encouraged the interaction during a testy exchange with the tech CEO and founder of Facebook.
“So you didn’t take any action,” Hawley said referring to child safety on the platforms owned by Meta.
“That’s not true senator,” Zuckerberg replied.
Hawley continued without addressing Zuckerberg’s objections, “You didn’t fire anybody, you haven’t compensated a single victim.”
“That’s not true,” Zuckerberg repeated.
“Let me ask you this,” Hawley said. “There’s families of victims here today. Have you apologized to the victims? Would you like to do so now?”
“Well…” Zuckerberg said, hesitating.
Watch video of the exchange above, via MSNBC.
Hawley noted that some of the families of victims were present in the hearing room.
“You’re on national television. Would you like now to apologize to the victims who have been harmed?” the senator asked.
“Show him the pictures,” Hawley said, referring to pictures of children impacted by the dangers of social media that the families brought with them, to a round of applause from the room.
Total silence and a sea of parents holding photos of their beautiful dead kids. As the hearing is about to begin pic.twitter.com/FzPqlovVPY
— Carrie Goldberg (@cagoldberglaw) January 31, 2024
“Would you like to apologize for what you’ve done to these good people?” Hawley said, pressing Zuckerberg into addressing the room directly.
Zuckerberg then stood up and turned to speak to the families, apologizing “for everything that you all have gone through.”
“No one should have to go through the things your families have suffered,” the Meta CEO continued, adding that the company was working on preventing such instances in the future.
