On Wednesday, during a Senate hearing on the involvement of tech companies in online child sexual exploitation, Meta Platforms Inc. META CEO Mark Zuckerberg, faced heckling from parents of children who passed or been exploited.
Later in the day, X, formerly Twitter, CEO Linda Yaccarino shared her opening remarks before the Senate Judiciary Committee, while also promising to make the "internet safer."
What Happened: Yaccarino took to X and expressed gratitude to parents, families, and young people for attending the Child Safety Hearing.
She went on to assure them saying, "You have my personal commitment that @X will be a partner in making the internet safer. Our conviction is shared, our commitment is real," adding, "It's time to ACT."
In the blog post Yaccarino shared which included her opening remarks at the Senate hearing, it was noted that "less than one percent of the U.S. users on X are between 13 and 17." These users are automatically configured with a private default setting, restricting the acceptance of messages only to those they approve.
"If CSE (Child Sexual Exploitation) content is posted on X, we remove it. Now we also remove any account that engages with CSE content – whether it's real or computer generated," Yaccarino stated. "Last year, X suspended 12.4 million accounts for violating our CSE policies. This is up from the 2.3 million accounts removed by Twitter in 2022."
X also endorsed the sop CSAM act and advocated for the ongoing advancement of the Kids Online Safety Act.
Why It's Important: Earlier in the day, during the hearing, Zuckerberg apologized to the parents saying, "It's terrible. No one should have to go through the things that your families have suffered."
Last year, it was reported that Instagram's recommendation system actively facilitates connections between pedophiles and content sellers, promoting numerous accounts dedicated to underage-sex content through explicit hashtag searches.
Moreover, Instagram reportedly had over three times the number of accounts selling child sex abuse material compared to Elon Musk's Twitter, which showed a faster response in removing such accounts despite its smaller user base.
At the time, Musk expressed his concerns regarding it, however in 2022 after the tech billionaire official acquired Twitter for $44 billion, many major advertisers reportedly suspended campaigns and removed advertisements from the platform because their ads were being showcased alongside content soliciting child pornography.
Musk later said that removing child exploitation is a priority.
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