Senator Graham Tells Zuckerberg: ‘You Have Blood on Your Hands’

Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., told Mark Zuckerberg that the Meta CEO and other social media companies have “blood on your hands” for failing to protect children against online child sexual exploitation.

Zuckerberg was among several social media CEOs who appeared Wednesday at a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing in Washington, D.C.

Graham, the ranking member, began his opening statement by saying Republicans on the committee are ready to work with Chairman Dick Durbin, D-Ill., and other Democrats in their efforts to stop the exploitation.

The South Carolina senator then mentioned Rep. Brandon Guffey, R-S.C., whose son committed suicide after using Instagram and being tricked by “a group in Nigeria,” which threatened to release sexual photos unless the youngster paid money. It’s a practice being termed “sextortion.”

“Mr. Zuckerberg, you and the companies before us … I know you don’t mean for it to be … but you have blood on your hands,” said Graham, earning applause by hearing attendees.

“You have a product that is killing people. When we had cigarettes killing people, we did something about it. Maybe not enough. You’re gonna talk about guns? We have the ATF. Nothing here. There’s not a damn thing anybody can do about it. You can’t be sued.”

In his opening statement, Zuckerberg did not address Graham’s comments. The CEO said he was looking forward to a “substantive discussion today that drives improvement across the industry,” and he recognized the attending families of sexual exploitation victims.

Graham cited Section 230 of the Communications Act, enacted as part of the Communications Decency Act of 1996. It provides limited federal immunity to providers and users of interactive computer services.

The statute generally precludes providers and users from being held liable for information provided by another person, but does not prevent them from being held legally responsible for information that they have developed or for activities unrelated to third-party content, according to the Congressional Research Service.

“Of all the people in America we could give blanket liability protection to, this would be the last group I would pick,” Graham said. “It is now time to repeal Section 230.

“This committee is made up of the ideologically most different people you could find. We’ve come together through your leadership, Mr. Chairman [Durbin] to pass five bills to deal with the problem of exploitation of children.”

Graham also commended Sens. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., and Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., calling them the “Dynamic Duo,” for finding emails from employees informing Meta executives about alarming internal research data on harmful experiences young people have on Instagram.

Graham said he and his committee colleagues will put pressure on fellow Senate members to let the bills be put to a floor vote.

“I have come to conclude … social media companies as they currently are designed and operate are dangerous products,” he said. “They are destroying lives, threatening democracy itself. These companies must be reined in, or the worst is yet to come.”

The committee’s bipartisan bills include:

• Strengthening Transparency and Obligations to Protect Children Suffering from Abuse and Mistreatment Act of 2023 (STOP CSAM Act), which supports victims and increases accountability and transparency for online platforms.
• The EARN IT Act creates targeted exceptions to Section to remove blanket immunity from civil and state criminal liability under child sexual abuse material laws and establishes a National Commission on Online Child Sexual Exploitation Prevention.
• The SHIELD Act ensures that federal prosecutors have appropriate and effective tools to address serious privacy violations.
• The Project Safe Childhood Act modernizes the investigation and prosecution of online child exploitation crimes.
• And the REPORT Act combats the rise in online child sexual exploitation by instilling new measures to help strengthen reporting of those crimes to the CyberTipline.

Joining Zuckerberg at the hearing were Discord CEO Jason Citron, Snap CEO Evan Spiegel, X CEO Linda Yaccarino and TikTok CEO Shou Chew.

Some attendees held up photos of young victims of online sexual exploitation.