Friday marks one year since the leaders of five major social media companies — Meta, TikTok, Snap, Discord, and X — were grilled by a Senate Judiciary Committee over their platforms’ impact on young users.
The contentious hearing threw the concerns over social media harms into the spotlight and amped up pressure on businesses and policymakers to do more to protect children and teens.
At one point, two of the leaders — Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg and Snapchat CEO Evan Spiegel — apologized to the families of children who died or were seriously harmed because of social media.
Some advocates and families appreciated the move, hoping changes might unfold in the coming months. But by the end of last year, much of the legislation on kids’ online safety failed to make it past the finish line amid pushback, largely from the House.
Meanwhile, tech executives now seem closer than ever to the White House orbit, stoking advocates’ concerns that they could have President Trump’s ear regarding their business interests.
“You have Mark Zuckerberg going from apologizing to the families who have lost children because of his products under oath to reversing that policy in defiant and then the cynical goal, I believe, of buying his way out of the ongoing lawsuits,” Tech Oversight Project Executive Director Sacha Haworth said.
Amid pressure from Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.), the Meta CEO faced the hearing audience and apologized to the families, including Deb Schill, the mother of Becca, who died at 18 after purchasing fentanyl-poisoned drugs allegedly purchased via social media.
Schmill told The Hill she “wanted to believe him,” but knew his remarks “obviously doesn’t equate to, ‘I’m willing to sacrifice something in my life, money to make sure that doesn’t happen to anyone else.’”
Read more in a full report this weekend at TheHill.com
Welcome to The Hill’s Technology newsletter, we’re Julia Shapero and Miranda Nazzaro — tracking the latest moves from Capitol Hill to Silicon Valley.
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Essential Reads
How policy will be impacting the tech sector now and in the future:
Trump vows sweeping tariffs on oil, pharmaceuticals and semiconductors
President Trump on Friday vowed to impose sweeping tariffs on semiconductor chips, pharmaceuticals, steel and aluminum and oil and gas. “We’ll be doing pharmaceuticals. Importantly in drugs and medicines, etc. All forms of medicine and pharmaceuticals,” Trump said. “And we’ll be doing, very importantly, steel, and we’ll also be doing chips and things associated with chips.” The president …
Full Story
Snowden speaks out on Gabbard confirmation battle
Former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden defended former Rep. Tulsi Gabbard (Hawaii), President Trump’s nominee to be director of national intelligence, following a fiery confirmation hearing in the Senate on Thursday. “Her sin is that she told the truth about the government spying on Americans, and for that she is getting absolutely persecuted,” Snowden wrote in a post on the social …
Full Story
Trump to meet with CEO of chipmaker Nvidia
President Trump will meet with the CEO of chipmaking powerhouse Nvidia on Friday as the White House reportedly mulls tightening chip exports to China, a White House official confirmed to The Hill. The meeting with Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang comes as competition between the U.S. and China heats up over artificial intelligence (AI) development amid the surge of Chinese AI startup DeepSeek earlier this week. The meeting will take …
Welcome to Crypto Corner, a new feature in The Hill’s Technology newsletter focused on digital currency and its outlook in Washington.
Hegde Fund Elliott Management reportedly warned this week the Trump administration’s rally around cryptocurrencies and the speculative bubble that has followed could cause “havoc” if prices collapse.
The assets firm “has never seen a market like this,” Elliott told investors in a letter obtained by the Financial Times. The letter reportedly went as far to say investors are “acting like a crowd of sports betters.”
The “inevitable collapse” of the crypto bubble “could wreak havoc in ways we cannot yet anticipate,” the firm said, according to FT.
Uncharted territory: President Trump is the first president to openly embrace the crypto industry, even after being a skeptic himself during his first term.
Cryptocurrency prices have soared in the wake of Trump’s reelection, but the firm’s letter serves as a reminder that it is still a volatile market.
The Refresh
News we’ve flagged from the intersection of tech and other topics:
WhatsApp says Israeli spyware firm Paragon Solutions targeted some 90 users in more than two dozen countries (Reuters)
OpenAI has launched a new “reasoning model,” o3-mini, that it claims runs faster and costs less than earlier iterations (TechCrunch)
In Other News
Branch out with other reads on The Hill:
Justice Department sues to block Hewlett Packard, Juniper merger
The Department of Justice (DOJ) on Thursday sued to block Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) from acquiring Juniper Networks, arguing that the merger between the nation’s second- and third-largest wireless network providers would reduce necessary competition in the industry. The agency contends that Juniper’s emergence in recent years has forced rivals like Hewlett Packard to cut their prices and invest in new products — advantages …
Full Story
Elizabeth Warren: Meta settlement with Trump ‘looks like a bribe’
Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) described Meta’s $25 million settlement with President Trump for deleting his accounts in the wake of the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol insurrection as a “bribe.” “It looks like a bribe and a signal to every company that corruption is the name of the game,” Warren wrote in a Thursday statement on the social platform X. “After Meta pays to play, what does Mark Zuckerberg expect as a return on this investment,” …
Full Story
What Others are Reading
Two key stories on The Hill right now:
Air traffic controllers union responds to Trump’s DEI attacks
The air traffic controllers union responded Friday to claims by President Trump this week that diversity programs contributed to the fatal crash in … Read more
DOJ sidesteps language endorsing legality of buyouts in email to staff
A small tweak to an email encouraging federal employees to take a buyout indicates the Justice Department wouldn’t vouch for the legality of the program. … Read more
What Others are Reading
Opinion related to tech submitted to The Hill:
Elon Musk deserves the Nobel Peace Prize
You’re all caught up. See you Monday!
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