‘That’s Ridiculous!’ Zuckerberg Gets in Heated Spat With Marsha Blackburn After She Levels Wild Allegation Against Meta

Mark Zuckerberg and Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) had an intense back-and-forth during a committee hearing over accusations that Meta is facilitating sex trafficking.

The world’s leading social media executives came to Capitol Hill on Wednesday to testify before the Senate Judiciary Committee about the sexual exploitation of children online. Republican lawmakers, including Blackburn, grilled Zuckerberg over accusations that Meta is not doing enough to protect children from exploitation on Facebook and Instagram.

During her questioning of the tech billionaire, Blackburn asked how the company can ensure Instagram’s Creators program does not facilitate illegal activities after failing to stop the exploitations of minors. The conversation then became heated when Blackburn claimed Meta wants turn into the “premier sex trafficking site in this country.”

BLACKBURN: I want to talk with you about your Instagram Creators program and about the push we found out through these documents that you actually are pushing forward because you want to bring kids in early. You see these younger teenagers as valuable but an untapped audience, quoting from the emails and suggesting teams are actually household influencers to bring their younger siblings into your platform, into Instagram. Now, how can you ensure that Instagram Creators, your product, your program does not facilitate illegal activities when you fail to remove content pertaining to the sale of minors, and it is happening once every two minutes in this country?

ZUCKERBERG: Senator, our tools for identifying that kind of content are industry leading, that doesn’t mean we’re perfect. There are definitely issues that we have, but we continue —

BLACKBURN: Mr. Zuckerberg, yes, there are a lot that is slipping through. It appears that you’re trying to be the premier sex trafficking site in this country.

ZUCKERBERG: Of  course not, Senator. Senator, that’s ridiculous.

BLACKBURN: No, it is not ridiculous.

ZUCKERBERG: We don’t want this content on our platforms.

BLACKBURN: Why don’t you take it down?

ZUCKERBERG: We do take it down. We do more work to take it down than —

BLACKBURN: No you are not, you are not! And the problem is we’ve been working on this. Senator Welch is over there. We’ve been working on this stuff for a decade. You have an army of lawyers and lobbyists that have fought us on this every step of the way. You work with Net Choice, the Cato Institute, Taxpayers Protection Alliance and Chamber of Progress to actually fight our bipartisan legislation to keep kids safe online.

Watch the clip above via CNN.

Have a tip for us? tips@mediaite.com