Zuckerberg and Senator Hawley clash in fiery child safety hearing

Mr. Zuckerberg, let me start with you. Did I hear you say in your opening statement that there's no link between mental health and social media use?

Senator, what I said is I think it's important to look at the science. I know it's people widely talk about this as if that is something that's already been proven, and I think that the bulk of the scientific evidence does not support that.

Well, really, let me just remind you of some of the science from your own company. Instagram studied the effect of your platform on teenagers. Let me just read you some quotes from The Wall Street Journal's report on this. Company researchers found that Instagram is harmful for a sizable percentage of teenagers, most notably teenage girls. Here's a quote from your own study: "We make body image issues worse for one in three teen girls." Here's another quote: "Teens blamed Instagram," this is your study, "for increases in the rate of anxiety and depression. This reaction was unprompted and consistent across all groups."

That's your study.

Senator, we try to understand the feedback and how people feel about the services we can improve.

Your own studies say that you make life worse for one in three teenage girls. You increase anxiety and depression! That's what it says, and you're here testifying to us in public that there's no link.

You've been doing this for years. For years, you've been coming in public and testifying under oath that there's absolutely no link. Your product is wonderful; the science is full speed ahead, while internally you know full well your product is a disaster for teenagers, and yet you keep right on doing what you're doing.

That's not true.

That's not true? Let me show you some other facts. I know that you're familiar with—

Wait a minute, wait a minute, wait a minute. That's not a question, that's not a question. Those are facts, Mr. Zuckerberg.

That's not a question. Those aren't facts.

Let me show you some more facts. Here are some—here's some information from a whistleblower who came before the Senate, testified under oath in public. He worked for you; he's a senior executive. Here's what he showed. He found when he studied your products: for example, this is girls between the ages of 13 and 15 years old—37% of them reported that they had been exposed to nudity on the platform, unwanted, in the last seven days.

24% said that they had experienced unwanted sexual advances; they've been propositioned in the last seven days. 177% said they had encountered self-harm content pushed at them in the last seven days. Now, I know you're familiar with these stats because he sent you an email where he lined it all out. I mean, we've got a copy of it right here.

My question is, who did you fire for this? Who got fired because of that?

Senator, we study all this because it's important, and we want to improve our services.

Well, you just told me a second ago you studied it but that there was no linkage. Who did you fire?

I said you mischaracterized—

37% of teenage girls between 13 and 15 were exposed to unwanted nudity in a week on Instagram. You knew about it! Who did you fire?

Senator, this is why we're building all the tools...

Senator, I don't think that that's...

Who did you fire?

I'm not going to answer that.

You didn't fire anybody, right? You didn't take any significant...

It's appropriate to talk about certain decisions.

Do you know who's sitting behind you? You've got families from across the nation whose children are either severely harmed or gone, and you don't think it's appropriate to talk about steps that you took? The fact that you didn't fire a single person...

Let me ask you this. Let me ask you this. Have you compensated any of the victims? Sorry, have you compensated any of the victims, these girls? Have you compensated them?

I don't believe so.

Why not? Don't you think they deserve some compensation for what your platform has done? Help with counseling services, help with dealing with the issues that your services caused?

Our job is to make sure that we build tools to help keep people safe.

Are you going to compensate them?

Senator, our job and what we take seriously is making sure that we build industry-leading tools to find harmful content, take it off the services, and to make money and to build tools that empower parents.

So, any action? You didn't take any action? You didn't fire anybody? You haven't compensated a single victim.

Let me ask you this. Let me ask you this. There's families of victims here today. Have you apologized to the victims? Would you like to do so now? Well, they're here. You're on national television. Would you like now to apologize to the victims who have been harmed by your product?

Show them the pictures. Would you like to apologize for what you've done to these good people?

The things that your families suffered, and this is why we invested so much and are going to continue doing industry-leading efforts to, uh, to make sure that others don’t go through the types of things that your families have had to suffer.

You know why, Mr. Zuckerberg? Why should your company not be sued for this? Why is it that you can claim you hide behind a liability shield? You can't be held accountable. Shouldn't you be held accountable personally? Will you take personal responsibility?

Senator, I think I've already answered this. I mean, this is—

Will you take personal responsibility?

Senator, I—

My job and the job of our company is building the best tools that we can to keep our community safe.

Well, you're failing at that.

Well, Senator, we're doing an industry-leading effort. We build AI tools—

Nonsense! Your product is killing people!

Will you personally commit to compensating the victims? You're a billionaire! Will you commit to compensating the victims?

We set up a compensation fund with your money!

I think these are complicated—

No! That's not a complicated question, though! That's yes or no! Will you set up a victim's compensation fund with your money, the money you made on these families sitting behind you? Yes or no?

Senator, I don't think that that's my job—

Your job is to be responsible for what your company has done! You've made billions of dollars on the people sitting behind you! Yes or no?

You've done nothing to help them. You've done nothing to compensate them. You've done nothing to put it right! You could do so here today, and you should! You should, Mr. Zuckerberg.