Why Mark Zuckerberg apologized
Post Reports
The Washington Post
4.4 • 5.1K Ratings
🗓️ 1 February 2024
⏱️ 29 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
On Wednesday, U.S. senators hammered major tech CEOs for not doing more to prevent child abuse online. Today on “Post Reports,” we dive into the takeaways from a contentious Senate hearing amid rising concerns about the well-being of youth online.
Read more:
In a bipartisan push, the Senate Judiciary Committee gathered to scrutinize the chief executives of Meta, TikTok, Snap, Discord and X, formerly known as Twitter, about child abuse on their platforms. The hearing largely focused on how to eliminate child sexual abuse material, but senators also questioned social media’s influence on mental health and overall safety.
Relatives of online child abuse victims also attended the hearing. Lawmakers reserved rows of seats for families whose loved ones had died, with their deaths linked to social media. At one point, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg turned to the families and apologized.
Tech reporter Cristiano Lima-Strong writes The Post’s Technology 202 newsletter, and was at the hearing. He reported on the hearing’s main takeaways and why Congress has stagnated for years when it comes to child safety online.
Today’s show was produced by Rennie Svirnovskiy, with help from Sabby Robinson. It was mixed by Sean Carter and edited by Monica Campbell.
Subscribe to The Technology 202 newsletter here.
Subscribe to The Washington Post here.
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | Just a heads up, today's episode mentions suicide. If you or someone you know needs help, visit |
| 0:10.1 | 988 lifeline.org or call or text the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline at 988. |
| 0:20.9 | It was a critical moment for Mark Zuckerberg. He and other social media CEOs faced a Senate |
| 0:26.8 | hearing yesterday about child abuse online. Zuckerberg, the head of Meta, was getting |
| 0:32.4 | grilled by Republican Senator Josh Holly of Missouri. |
| 0:35.8 | Who did you fire? |
| 0:36.8 | I said you mischaracterized 37% of teenage girls between 13 and 15 were exposed to unwanted nudity in a week on |
| 0:45.5 | Instagram you knew about it who did you fire? Senator this is why we're building all |
| 0:50.0 | who did you fire rules? Senator that's I don't think that that's who did you fire? Who did you fire? |
| 0:54.0 | I'm not going to answer that. |
| 0:56.0 | Because you didn't fire anybody, right? |
| 0:59.6 | You didn't take any significant action. |
| 1:01.3 | It's appropriate to talk about it. It's not appropriate. Do you know who's |
| 1:06.1 | sitting behind you? Behind Zuckerberg, rows of people stood up, families holding large photos of children. Some had died with their |
| 1:15.9 | deaths linked to social media. Senator Holly continued. |
| 1:19.7 | The fact that you didn't fire a single person. Let me ask you this. |
| 1:23.0 | Have you compensated any of the victims? |
| 1:25.0 | Sorry? |
| 1:26.0 | Have you compensated any of the victims? |
| 1:28.0 | These girls have you compensated them? |
| 1:30.0 | I don't believe so. |
| 1:32.0 | Why not? That empower parents. So you didn't take any |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from The Washington Post, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of The Washington Post and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.