Discord, Snap and X CEOs subpoenaed to testify at US hearing on child exploitation
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Discord said “keeping our users safe, especially young people, is central to everything we do at Discord”.
PHOTO: REUTERS
WASHINGTON - The chief executives of Discord, Snap and X, formerly known as Twitter, were issued subpoenas to compel them to testify at a Dec 6 hearing into online child sexual exploitation, the US Senate Judiciary Committee said on Nov 20.
The committee said Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg and TikTok CEO Chew Shou Zi are expected to testify at a future hearing voluntarily, but it is not clear when.
The committee said Discord and X, owned by Mr Elon Musk, refused to cooperate by accepting service of the subpoenas on behalf of their CEOs, “requiring the committee to enlist the assistance of the US Marshals Service to personally serve the subpoenas”.
The committee released copies of the subpoenas served to Snap’s Mr Evan Spiegel, Discord’s Mr Jason Citron and X’s Ms Linda Yaccarino.
Snap said Mr Spiegel has already agreed to testify before the Senate Judiciary Committee “and our team is coordinating with committee staff on potential dates”.
“We appreciate the opportunity to appear before the committee to discuss this vital issue,” it added.
Mr Wifredo Fernandez, head of US and Canada government affairs for X, said the company has been “working in good faith to participate in the judiciary committee’s hearing on child protection online as safety is our top priority at X. Today, we are communicating our updated availability to participate in a hearing on this important issue”.
Discord said “keeping our users safe, especially young people, is central to everything we do at Discord”. “We have been actively engaging with the committee on how we can best contribute to this important industry discussion,” it added.
Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram, and TikTok did not comment.
Senate Judiciary Committee chair Dick Durbin and its top Republican Lindsey Graham said the hearing will allow committee members to press CEOs from some of the biggest social media companies on their failures to protect children online.
“Big Tech’s failure to police itself at the expense of our kids cannot go unanswered,” said Mr Durbin and Mr Graham in a joint statement. “Hearing from the CEOs of some of the world’s largest social media companies will help inform the committee’s efforts to address the crisis of online child sexual exploitation.”
Since the committee held a hearing in February, it has approved a number of Bills, including one that would remove tech firms’ immunity from civil and criminal liability under child sexual abuse material laws that was first proposed in 2020.
Another would establish a National Commission on Online Child Sexual Exploitation Prevention, and another to modernise investigations and prosecutions of online child exploitation crimes. REUTERS
