Marsha Blackburn, a Republican, represents Tennessee in the U.S. Senate.
Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg testified Wednesday in a landmark trial focused on how social media platforms harm and addict American children. Sitting just feet from parents who have tragically lost their children because of social media harms, the Facebook founder doubled down on his record of denial.
Testifying on the subject before a jury for the first time, Zuckerberg continued to assert that no link has been established between youth social media use and worse mental health outcomes. But Meta’s own research has told a different story. He also did not mention that in September several whistleblowers alleged in a bombshell Washington Post report that Meta buried internal child safety research because it didn’t like the results.
Meta denies that allegation. But last year, I held a hearing with two such whistleblowers, who testified that toxic culture — starting at the top with Zuckerberg and the C-Suite — at the company encouraged a cover-up. Years before these whistleblower allegations came to light, it was reported that the company downplayed the toxic impact of Instagram on teenage girls. To no one’s surprise, Zuckerberg dodged questions Wednesday about how Instagram can worsen anxiety, depression, body-image issues and eating disorder risks.
Zuckerberg has also claimed, “We don’t allow people under the age of 13 on our service.” However, internal Meta documents show that the company was building “social products” targeting children as young as 6.
Don’t be fooled, either, by Zuckerberg’s promises to effectively deploy tools to protect children. A report on the “Teen Accounts” that Meta often touts found that only 17 percent of their safety features worked as advertised.
By now, it ought to be crystal clear that Big Tech cannot be trusted to regulate itself. It cannot even be trusted to tell the truth about the way its products harm young users. Parents are rightfully outraged. In a survey released Tuesday by the Tech Oversight Project, 86 percent of Americans said they want tech companies to be held accountable for their role in the social media addiction crisis.
There is also overwhelming bipartisan support in Congress to rein in Big Tech. I introduced the Kids Online Safety Act, which passed the Senate 91-3 last Congress but stalled in the House after leadership there would not allow a vote. KOSA would place a “duty of care” on tech companies to ensure minors have strong protections by default. Just this week, Vice President JD Vance drew attention to the need to pass KOSA, calling my bill a “great piece of legislation about child safety online.” As of October of last year, Meta had spent roughly $20 million and hired one lobbyist for every six members of Congress, according to the bipartisan nonprofit Issue One.
Without federal protections in place, people who have been harmed or lost loved ones because of social media have been forced to go to court to demand accountability. These plaintiffs have seen firsthand how social media platforms trap children, expose them to sexual predators, and amplify depression and anxiety by flooding their pages with dark, isolating and even suicidal content.
The defendants in these cases are some of the most profitable companies in history — including Meta and Alphabet (the owner of YouTube). Instead of taking these lawsuits seriously, social media companies blame victims and parents. They suggest that grieving parents should have better monitored their children’s social media use — even as the companies make that task harder and harder.
The trial in Los Angeles is ramping up public pressure for Congress to act, and we must heed the call to hold Big Tech accountable.
To my fellow legislators, I have one simple question: Will you side with moguls like Mark Zuckerberg? Or will you side with the 86 percent of Americans who are demanding we stand up to Big Tech for preying on our children?
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