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 nent Full Speed
Ahead while internally you
know full well your product is
a disaster for teenagers and
you right on doing what
you're doing right that's not
true that's not true chairman
Durban ranking member
Graham and members of the
committee every day teens
and young people do amazing
things on our services they
 use our apps to create new
things Express themselves
explore the world around
them and feel more connected
to the people they care about
overall teens tell us that this is
a positive part of their lives
but some face challenges
online so we work hard to
provide parents and teens
support and controls to reduce
potential harms being a parent
is one of the hardest jobs in
the world technology gives us
new ways to communicate
with our kids and feel
connected to their lives but it
can also make parenting more
complicated and it's important
to me that our services are
positive for everyone who
uses them we are on the side
of parents everywhere
working hard to raise their
kids over the last8 years we've
built more than 30 different
tools resources and features
that parents can set time limits
for their teens using our apps
see who they're following or
if they report someone for
bullying for teens we've
added nudges that remind
them when they've been using
Instagram for a while or if it's
getting late and they should
go to sleep as well as ways to
hide words or people without
those people finding out we
put special restrictions on teen
accounts on Instagram by
default accounts for under 16s
are set to private have the
most restrictive content
settings and can't be messaged
by adults that they don't
follow or people they aren't
connected to with so much of
our Lives spent on mobile
devices and social media it's
important to look into the
effects on Teen Mental Health
and well-being I take this very
seriously mental health is a
 complex issue and the
existing body of scientific
work has not shown a cause a
link between using social
media and young people
having worse mental health
outcomes a recent nationaly
of science report evaluated
over 300 studies and found
that research quote did not
support the conclusion that
social media causes changes
in adolescent mental health at
the population level end quote
it also suggested that social
media can provide significant
positive benefits when young
people use it to express
 themselves explore and
connect with others still we're
going to continue to monitor
the research and use it to
inform our road map keeping
young people safe online has
been a challenge since the
internet began and as
criminals evolve their tactics
we have to evolve our
defenses too we work closely
with law enforcement to find
Bad actors and help bring
them to justice but the
difficult reality is that no
matter how much we invest or
how effective our tools are
there are always more there's
 always more to learn and
more improvements to make
but we remain ready to work
with members of this
committee industry and
parents to make the internet
safer for everyone I'm proud
of the work that our teams do
to improve online child safety
on our services and across the
entire internet we have around
40,000 people overall
working on Safety and
Security and we've invested
more than2 billion in this
since 2016 including around5
billion in the last year alone
we have many teams
 dedicated to child safety and
teen wellbeing and we lead
the industry in a lot of the
areas that we're discussing
today we build technology to
tackle the worst online risks
and share it to help our whole
industry get better like project
Lantern which helps
companies share data about
people who break child safety
rules and we're founding
members of take it down a
platform which helps young
people prevent their nud
images from being spread
online we also go beyond
legal requirements and use
 sophisticated technology to
proactively discover abuse of
material and as a result we
find and Report more
inappropriate content than
anyone else in the industry as
the national Center for
missing and exploited
children put it this week meta
goes quote above and beyond
to make sure that there are no
portions of their Network
where this type of activity
occurs end quote I hope we
can have a substantive
discussion today that drives
improvements across the
industry including legislation
 that delivers what parents say
they want a clear system for
age verification and control
over what apps their kids are
using three out of four parents
want App Store age
verification and four out of
five want parental approval of
whatever uh whenever teens
download apps we support
this parents should have the
final say on what apps are
appropriate for their children
and shouldn't have to upload
their ID every time that's what
app stores are for we also
support setting industry
standards on age appropriate
 content and limiting signals
for advertising to teens to age
and location and not Behavior
at the end of the day we want
everyone who uses our
services to have safe and
positive experiences before I
wrap up I want to recognize
the the families who are here
today um who have lost a
loved one or lived through
some some Terrible Things
That No family should have
to endure these issues are
important for every parent
and every platform I'm
committed to continuing to
work in these areas and I hope
 we can make progress today
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 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 quote
we make body image issues
work 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 uh the feedback and and
how people feel about the
services we can improve a
minute your own your own
study says that you make life
worse for one and three
teenage girls you increase
anxiet it says you're tesy to us
that there's no link you've
been doing this for years for
years you've been coming in
and testifying under oath that
there's absolutely no link your
product is wonderful the
science is nent Full Speed
Ahead while internally you
know full well your product is
a disaster for teenagers and
you keep right on doing what
you're doing right that's not
true that's not true let me let
me let me show you some
other facts I know that you're
familiar withe wait minute
wait 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 it's a senior
executive here's what he
showed he found when he
studied your products so 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 7 days
24% said that they had
experienced unwanted sexual
advances they've been
propositioned in the last 7
Days 177% said they had
encountered self harm content
pushed at them in the last 7
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
yeah 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 did tools
Senator that's I don't think
that that's who did you fire
I'm not going to answer that
um that's you didn't fire
anybody right you didn't take
any significant AC it's
appropriate to talk about like
IND 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 take a
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 you why not don't
you think they deserve some
compensation for what your
platform was done help with
counseling services help with
dealing with the issues that
your your service has caused
our 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 cont take
it off the services to make
money and to build tools that
Empower parents so you
didn't take 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 I 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
prod show them the pictures
would you like to apologize
for what you've done to these
good people I I I'm sorry
everything that you have all
gone through is terrible no
one should have to go through
the things that your families
have have suffered and this is
why we invest so much and
are going to continue doing
industry-leading efforts to uh
to make sure that no one has
to go through the types of
things that your families have
had to [Music] 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 I
think I've already answered
this I mean this is these try
will you take personal
responsibility Senator I view
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 will you set up a
compensation fund with your
money I think these are these
are with your money Senator
these are complicated no that
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 family sitting behind
you yes or no Senator I don't
think that that's my job is to
good tools my my job is to
make sure that your job is to
be responsible for what your
company has done you've
made billions of dollars on the
people sitting behind them are
you here 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.

GLOBAL ENGLISH
PODCASTS