00:00You're on national television. Would you like now to apologize to the victims who
00:04have been harmed by your product? Show them the pictures. Would you like to
00:08apologize for what you've done to these good people?
00:11I'm sorry for everything that you've all gone through. It's terrible. No one should have to go through the things
00:16that your families have suffered.
00:19And this is why we invest so much and are going to continue doing industry leading
00:23efforts to make sure that no one has to go through the types of things that your
00:29families have had to suffer. Mr. Zuckerberg, let me start with you. Did I hear you
00:33say in your opening statement that there's no link between mental health and
00:37social media use? Senator, what I said is I think it's important to look at the
00:42science. I know it's people widely talk about this as if that is something
00:46that's already been proven and I think that the bulk of the scientific evidence
00:50does not support that. Well really, let me just remind you of some of the science
00:54from your own company. Instagram studied the effect of your platform on
01:00teenagers. Let me just read you some quotes from the Wall Street Journal's
01:03report on this. Company researchers found that Instagram is harmful for a
01:07sizable percentage of teenagers, most notably teenage girls. Here's a quote from
01:12your own study. Quote, we make body image issues worse for one in three teen girls. Here's
01:18another quote. Teens blamed Instagram. This is your study for increases in the rate of
01:23anxiety and depression. This reaction was unprompted and consistent across all
01:28groups. That's your study. Senator, we try to understand the feedback and how
01:34people feel about the services. We can improve them. Your own study says that you
01:40make life worse for one in three teenage girls. You increase anxiety and
01:45depression. That's what it says and you're here testifying to us in public that
01:48there's no link. You've been doing this for years. For years you've been coming in
01:52public and testifying under oath that there's absolutely no link. Your product
01:56is wonderful. The science is nascent. Full speed ahead. While internally you know full
02:01well your product is a disaster for teenagers. And yet you keep right on doing what you're
02:06doing. Right? That's not true. That's not true. Let me let me let me show you some
02:10other facts. I know that you're familiar with. Wait a minute. Wait a minute. That's not a
02:14question. That's not a question. Those are facts, Mr. Zuckerberg. That's not a question.
02:18That's bizarre. Let me show you some more facts. Here are some information from a whistleblower
02:24who came before the Senate, testified under oath in public. He worked for you. He's a senior
02:27executive. Here's what he showed he found when he studied your products. So for example,
02:34this is girls between the ages of 13 and 15 years old. 37% of them reported that they had
02:40been
02:41exposed to nudity on the platform unwanted in the last seven days. 24% said that they had experienced
02:48unwanted sexual advances. They've been propositioned in the last seven days. 17% said they had encountered
02:55self-harm content pushed at them in the last seven days. Now I know you're familiar with these stats
03:02because he sent you an email where he lined it all out. I mean, we've got a copy of it
03:06right here.
03:09My question is, who did you fire for this? Who got fired because of that?
03:15Senator, we study all this because it's important and we want to improve our services.
03:18Well, you just told me a second ago you studied it, but that there was no linkage.
03:22Who did you fire?
03:23I said you mischaracterized.
03:2437% of teenage girls between 13 and 15 were exposed to unwanted nudity in a week on Instagram
03:32Graham. You knew about it. Who did you fire?
03:34Senator, this is why we're building all these new rituals.
03:36Who did you fire?
03:38Senator, I don't think that that's...
03:39Who did you fire?
03:41I'm not going to answer that.
03:43Because you didn't fire anybody, right? You didn't take any significant action.
03:47I don't think it's appropriate to talk about individual HR decisions.
03:52Do you know who's sitting behind you? You've got families from across the nation whose children
03:58are either severely harmed or gone, and you don't think it's appropriate to talk about steps that
04:04you took? The fact that you didn't fire a single person? Let me ask you this. Let me ask you
04:07this.
04:07Have you compensated any of the victims?
04:10Sorry?
04:10Have you compensated any of the victims?
04:13These girls, have you compensated them?
04:15I don't believe so.
04:17Why not?
04:19Don't you think they deserve some compensation for what your platform has done?
04:23Help with counseling services? Help with dealing with the issues that your service has caused?
04:29Our job is to make sure that we build tools to help keep people safe.
04:33Are you going to compensate them?
04:35Senator, our job, and what we take seriously, is making sure that we build industry-leading
04:39tools to find harmful content, take it off the services, and to build tools that empower
04:45parents.
04:45So you didn't take any action. You didn't take any action. You didn't fire anybody. You
04:49haven't compensated a single victim. Let me ask you this. Let me ask you this. There's
04:53families of victims here today. Have you apologized to the victims? Would you like to do so now?
04:59Well, they're here. You're on national television. Would you like now to apologize to the victims
05:04who have been harmed by your product? Show them the pictures. Would you like to apologize for what
05:09you've done to these good people?
05:14I'm sorry for everything that you've all gone through. It's terrible. No one should have to go through the things
05:19that your families have suffered. And this is why we invest so much and are going to continue doing industry
05:26-leading efforts to make sure that no one has to go through the types of things that your families have
05:32had to suffer.
05:36You know, why, Mr. Zuckerberg, why should your company not be sued for this? Why is it that you can
05:46claim, you hide behind a liability shield, you can't be held accountable? Shouldn't you be held accountable personally? Will you
05:51take personal responsibility?
05:53Senator, I think I've already answered this. I mean, this is-
05:56Well, try this again. Will you take personal responsibility?
05:59Senator, I view my job and the job of our company as building the best tools that we can to
06:05keep our community safe.
06:06Well, you're failing at that.
06:08Well, Senator, we're doing an industry-leading effort. We build AI tools that-
06:11Oh, nonsense. Your product is killing people. Will you personally commit to compensating the victims? You're a billionaire. Will you
06:16commit to compensating the victims? Will you set up a compensation fund? With your money?
06:20With your money. Senator, these are complicated issues.
06:23Yes, no, that's not a complicated question, though. That's a yes or no. Will you set up a victims' compensation
06:27fund with your money, the money you made on these families sitting behind you? Yes or no?
06:33Senator, I don't think that that's-
06:35My job is to make sure we build good tools.
06:37Sounds like a no.
06:39Your job is to be responsible for what your company has done. You've made billions of dollars on the people
06:44sitting behind you here. You've done nothing to help them. You've done nothing to compensate them.
06:49You've done nothing to put it right. You could do so here today, and you should. You should, Mr. Zuckerberg.
