January 31, 2024: CEOs of Meta, X, Discord, TikTok and Snap testify before Senate Judiciary Committee

The grills of the Senate judicial committee of four social media leaders have produced notable moments. Here are some:

Zuckerberg, Spiegel apologizes personally to families: The meta-PDG, Zuckerberg, spoke to apologize to the families of the courtroom. “I’m sorry for everything you have all experienced,” he said. “No one should go through the things that your families have suffered and that is why we invest as much and we will continue to make efforts on an industry scale to ensure that no one should browse the things your families had to suffer.”

Snap CEO Evan Spiegel also apologized to families whose children died after buying drugs on Snapchat. “I am really sorry not to have been able to prevent these tragedies,” said Spiegel, before detailing some of the efforts to protect young users.

“The dark side” of social media products “is too large”: Social media companies have created products that have an advantage, but they also have an obscure side which is “too big to live,” said Republican Senator Lindsey Graham on Wednesday while grilling general directors of four of these companies. Until social media companies are prosecuted for the damage they make, Graham warned that there would be no change.

To hate social media societies is a rare unifying force on Capitol Hill: Wednesday’s hearing again demonstrates the extent of criticism for social media societies among legislators, a rare bipartisan subject on Capitol Hill. However, despite the appetite of both parties to continue the technological platforms, the Congress has not yet adopted significant legislation to regulate social media companies. Most of the measures have taken place in states and court legislatures, which have become battlefields for new policies, including age minimums for social media.

Read the full Relaxation of key hearing moments here.