“Nobody should have to go through what their families went through.”

The title of the United States Senate Judiciary Committee session held this Wednesday appears to be designed to intimidate those who will testify there: ‘Big Tech and the crisis of child sexual exploitation’. And those who have been called are part of the list of businessmen and managers with whom MLAs from both political groups take special pleasure in interacting. they are a Perfect target to score political points And then do nothing, except accept donations from those companies for their campaigns.

so Mark Zuckerberg, the top person is responsible Target (Instagram, Facebook, WhatsApp), I already knew what I was going to do. Equal Shaw Chew, from TikTok; Linda Yaccarino, from old Twitter, Now its owner has changed its name to Elon Musk Snap’s Evan Spiegel; And Jason Citron, from Discord. The fact that the hearing will take place in 2024, right at the beginning of an election year, when 28 months have passed casts so little doubt on a newspaper clickbaitAs sensationalism or anti-capitalism wall street journal The headline on the front page is “Facebook knows Instagram is toxic for teen girls” This was revealing. Meanwhile, the years 2022 and 2023 passed without anyone doing anything special about it, although in that period Meta, the owner of Facebook and Instagram, has spent $38.4 million (35.4 million euros) in lobbying in the US. Legislature.

The audience was generous in the moments that aired on television. The most intense was when the Republican senator from Missouri Josh Hawley — who has serious aspirations to run for president in 2028 — took a dig at Meta’s founder, owner and CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, by reminding him that a large portion of the audience were relatives of teenagers who suffered serious health problems. Was lying. Has been extensively exposed in Instagram images and, to a lesser extent, Facebook. “Would you like to apologize to these nice people?” Hawley said ‘Zak’, which is colloquially called ‘Zak’ by many people in the United States.

So Zuckerberg stood up and, with his back to the senators, addressed parents of teens suffering from eating disorders, anxiety or depression: “Nobody should have to go through what their families went through.” Said. Once the headlines were clarified, the world’s fifth-richest businessman ($144,000 million, or 133,000 million euros) explained: “That’s why we invest so much money, and we want to lead the efforts in this area.” will continue.” Guarantee that no one will have to suffer what you and your family did.

It was a climactic moment of repentance ceremony for the companies representingTo a reputational and regulatory threat, but not legislative. It is impossible for the United States Congress to pass a law that restricts the activities of these companies for the simple reason that Their turnover is tremendous, their social impact is unmatched and their ability to donate to politicians is inexhaustible. Republicans talk about banning TikTok, which they accuse of spying for China, but the problem — again, according to Republicans wall street journal – This is another one, and it’s called Jeff Yass. Although unknown to the general public, Yas owns 7% of the capital of ByteDance, the Chinese state company that owns TikTok, representing a share package worth approximately $28 billion (about 26 billion euros). but yes also One of the largest donors to Club for GrowthA business organization that gives money exclusively to Republican politicians. Josh Haley along with the Republicans ted cruz Which also attacked Zuckerberg – the senator who benefited most from the Club for Growth’s generosity.

All these situations limited the credibility of this Wednesday’s session, despite the efforts of senators Greeted with some skepticism by public opinion And even by the mainstream media, which gave it limited coverage. Since Facebook, before going public, began conducting studies on the relationship between negative content, exposure to pressure, and ‘engagement’ among teens – that is, following their pages, it has become clear that Social networks exploit the animal within all of us in the most efficient way. An example: recent information – again, from wall street journalwhose owner, Rupert Murdoch It has a particular hatred of social networks because they pose a threat to its newspapers, with which it has an almost emotional relationship – they show that Instagram always presents content from people younger than users.

It was the turn after Zuckerberg spiegel, who immediately apologized without being asked after seeing what Haley had done to her predecessor. The exchange between shou and republican senators tom cotton Another who aspires to run for the White House in 2029 asked the manager, who left out child sexual abuse, if “have you ever been a member of the Chinese Communist Party.” Shaw’s response made it clear how knowledgeable Cotton was: “No, Senator, I’m from Singapore.”

The result was a wave of criticism, but nothing else. Zuckerberg took advantage of the session to blame his two great rivals, Apple and Alphabet (owners of Google and YouTube) Of the situation. democrat Sheldon Whitehouse The situation was summed up with one sentence: “Their platforms are terrible at self-regulation.” However, at this time regulators have neither the resources nor the legal tools to tighten regulation. Interestingly, it depends on the senators. But these will not be given to them. It is more useful to be politically angry.