Overview

The 2024 Senate Online Child Safety Hearing, also known as Big Tech and the Online Child Sexual Exploitation Crisis, refers to the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee hearing in early 2024 featuring CEOs from TikTok, Snapchat, X / Twitter and Meta regarding online child safety. During the televised hearing, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg was pressed to apologize and make safety commitments to parents during his questioning. TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew was faced with questions by Republican Senator Tom Cotton about his ties with China and if he had ever belonged to the Chinese Communist Party during a hearing over alleged online harm to children. The hearing became a hot topic subject across all social media platforms as it spread online, with many clips going viral and inspiring debates about the online safety of children. Some viral quotes said by the senators and CEOs during the event also became memes.

Background

On January 31st, 2024, The U.S.Senate Judiciary Committee^[1] subpoenaed prominent social media CEOs such as Linda Yaccarino of X, Shou Zi Chew of TikTok, Evan Spiegel of Snapchat, Mark Zuckerberg of Meta and Jason Citron of Discord to answer questions regarding the safety of young people on their platforms. The hearing, titled "Big Tech and the Online Child Sexual Exploitation Crisis," was streamed on YouTube^[2] by @PBSNewsHour, which amassed over 95,000 views and 1,200 likes in a day (seen below).

Developments

Mark Zuckerberg's Apology

Meta's CEO Mark Zuckerberg apologized^[3] to parents in the audience of the Senate online child safety hearing who alleged his platform Instagram contributed to their children's suicides or exploitation. The CEO was pressed by Republican Senator Josh Hawley if he would like to apologize to victims harmed by his product, to which Zuckerberg replied, "I'm sorry for everything you have all been through."

He also pointed out that "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." His apology was posted on YouTube^[4] by ABC News (shown below), receiving roughly 227,000 views and 3,200 likes in a day.

Senator Tom Cotton vs. TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew

While the focus of the hearing was online child safety, Rep. Senator Tom Cotton dedicated most of his time trying to make TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew answer questions unrelated to the primary topic, particularly the fact that TikTok is owned by Chinese company ByteDance or repetitively pressing the CEO about his citizenship, which is Singaporean.^[5]

The moment was widely spread on social media following the January 31st, 2024, hearing, like the official MSNBC account @msnbc,^[6] which posted on January 31st (shown below, left and amassed more than 8 million plays and 487,000 likes in one day. On February 1st, TikTok^[7] creator @iamlijingjing posted her thoughts about Cotton's questionings (shown below, right), amassing over 65,000 plays and 2,800 likes in a few hours.

Online Reactions

The hearing became a highly prominent topic across multiple social media platforms in early 2024. For example, on February 1st, 2024, the New York Post shared its cover on Facebook^[8] featuring Mark Zuckerberg (shown below, top) and the title "Sorry isn't enough" in reference to his apology to parents during the hearing. The post amassed roughly 70 likes and 20 shares in a few hours.

On the same day, X^[9] user @Chombe1080 shared a meme from the animated sitcom King of The Hill in which a character asks if a person is "Chinese or Japanese," alluding to Senator Cotton's repeated questions towards the TikTok CEO. The post (shown below, bottom) amassed more than 850 likes and 80 retweets in a day.

Search Interest

External References