It’s Oscars season, and the award for the worst hypocrite goes to…
At Wednesday’s “Big Tech and the Online Child Sexual Exploitation Crisis” hearing at the United States Senate of the heads of several social networks (Meta, TikTok, Discord, X and Snap), Mark Zuckerberg put in an Oscar-worthy performance. Questioned by Republican Senator Josh Hawley, who pointed out his inaction in correcting some of the features of his products that clearly caused harm to many young people, and offered the chance to apologize to the relatives of some of them who were in the room with photos of their children, the Meta founder and CEO stood up and delivered the following well-rehearsed words:
“I’m sorry for everything you have all been through, no one should have to go through the things that your families have suffered, and this is why we invested so much.”
As we all know, that’s a pack of lies. Meta has long been aware of the effect of its products on the mental health of its users, particularly younger people. It has certainly invested huge sums, but to come up with ways to cause them even more harm. Zuckerberg has personally overruled the warnings of his managers, rejecting time and again implementing any changes to mitigate or avoid the effects that his products have…
