VIDEO: Blackburn Eviscerates Meta for Suppressing Child Safety Research Following Whistleblower Allegations

WASHINGTON, D.C. - Today, U.S. Senator Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) Chair of the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Privacy, Technology, and the Law, led a hearing following new allegations from six whistleblowers that Meta buried child safety research. Two former Meta researchers testified at the hearing about the toxic culture at Meta. Watch the full hearing here.

Ahead of the hearing, Senator Blackburn led a press conference with Senators Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.), Ranking Member of the Subcommittee, Ashley Moody (R-Fla.), Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), and parents, Brian Montgomery and Maurine Molak, who lost their children following exposure to harms on social media. During the hearing and the press conference, Senator Blackburn renewed the call to pass her Kids Online Safety Act, which passed the Senate in a 91-3 vote last year to require Big Tech companies like Meta to make their platforms safer by design for children.

Click here to download video of Senator Blackburn's opening remarks and here to watch the full hearing.

Click here to download photos and here to watch Senator Blackburn's press conference.

SUBCOMMITTEE HEARING OPENING REMARKS AS PREPARED

"Good afternoon and thank you all for being here for this important hearing. We are here today to hear from Dr. Jason Sattizahn and Ms. Cayce Savage, two brave whistleblowers who have come forward to detail shocking allegations about Meta's cover-up of deeply disturbing child safety research. They were hired to purportedly make the platform safer, but what they found was a company that knew their products were unsafe and just didn't care.

Nearly four years ago, I held my first hearing with a Meta whistleblower who detailed how Meta exploits our children online simply to maximize user engagement and boost their profits. Since then, we've seen a national movement of parents, legislators, whistleblowers, and kids that have said enough is enough; our children are more precious than the interests of depraved Big Tech CEOs; and that Congress must pass the bipartisan Kids Online Safety Act. After all these years, Meta continues to knowingly allow sexual exploitation and harms to children on their platforms. I am incredibly grateful that individuals are still willing to come forward and shine a light on Meta's disturbing, and willful, actions.

Mark Zuckerberg has promised that "in the Metaverse, you'll be able to do almost anything you can imagine." And for once, Mr. Zuckerberg's statement rings true. That is, for pedophiles, groomers, and all kinds of disgusting bad actors. As these whistleblowers will explain, the "Metaverse" has become the Wild West for criminals who prey on children.

As our witnesses will tell us today, virtual reality can be incredibly dangerous for children-specifically because of the immersive nature of the technology. Children have a much harder time processing the difference between violence and abuse in the physical and virtual spaces. In other

words, when their avatar on Meta's virtual reality platform is raped or harassed, children experience that trauma as if it is actually happening to them. Let's be clear: virtual reality is reality. These harms are real. And this abuse happens every single day on virtual reality platforms like Meta's.

One employee stated on an internal message board in 2017-and I'm quoting-"We have a child problem and it's probably time to talk about it." But, years later, Meta's C-Suite has zero interest in these findings. According to these whistleblowers, Meta executives decided they didn't want to see research detailing how harmful their products are to children. So, they unleashed their attack dogs within Meta Legal on the research teams, intent on creating a rosy picture of their products. Meta Legal manipulated research methods and buried negative data. Meta instructed researchers to avoid asking teen survey participants questions which might lead them to discuss harms they've experienced because of Meta's design. And when their suppression didn't work, they simply deleted the evidence.

In one user review, Meta's Horizon Worlds was dubbed "the pedophile kingdom." This makes clear what we have known for years: that Meta profits from the sexualization and abuse of children. If you need another example, look at the recent report that Meta's own internal guidelines allowed AI chatbots to engage in sensual conversations with children. Their refusal to protect children-and to instead profit at the expense of kids' safety-is heinous.

Again, I want to thank both of you for your willingness to come forward today. I know this was not an easy decision for either of you, but what you're doing brings us one step closer to holding these Big Tech platforms accountable. Parents across our nation thank you for standing up and speaking out.

And to the parents here today - to Maurine, Brian, Mia, and Christine - who have lost their children to social media harms, thank you for being here. We're grateful for your passion to make sure that no parent ever has to go through the trauma you've gone through. With your help, we'll get the Kids Online Safety Act to the President's desk."

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