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Social media executives from Meta, Alphabet, TikTok and Snap have been invited to testify next month before the Senate Judiciary Committee, as lawmakers press the companies to protect children and teens who use their platforms, according to a committee spokesperson. The June 23 hearing will mark another congressional push following previous Senate scrutiny of the industry’s role in harms to young users, and it arrives amid ongoing court cases and proposed legislation that critics say are forcing the issue into the mainstream.
The invited executives are Mark Zuckerberg of Meta, Sundar Pichai of Alphabet and Google (which owns YouTube), Shou Zi Chew of TikTok and Evan Spiegel of Snap, the committee announced. Meta declined to comment, while representatives for the other companies did not immediately respond to requests for comment, the report said.
The hearing comes at what lawmakers and advocates describe as an inflection point for social media oversight, in part because advocates and courts have recently tied platform operations to harm involving young people. It also follows a prior Senate Judiciary Committee hearing in January 2024, when lawmakers questioned the companies on exploitation of children on their services and on social media’s effects on young people’s lives.
Sen. Chuck Grassley, a Republican and the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, invited the CEOs. The June 23 hearing is titled “Examining Tech Industry Practices and the Implications for Users and Families: Is This Social Media’s Big Tobacco Moment?” with the focus on what senators say are risks for children and families and whether companies have made meaningful changes.
At a separate hearing on Wednesday held by the subcommittee on Privacy, Technology and the Law, senators heard from advocates and experts on children’s social media use, including parents who have said their children have died from social media-related harms. Sen. Dick Durbin, an Illinois Democrat, said at that hearing that lawmakers should call the CEOs back on a bipartisan basis to ask what has happened over the last two years and to discuss losses that have occurred.
Watchdog groups and critics have said they expect stronger commitments from the industry, especially after recent legal outcomes involving major platforms. Sacha Haworth, executive director of The Tech Oversight Project, said in the report that “Americans are realizing more and more every day that they cannot trust the CEOs at the helms of these companies because they do not put our safety first,” adding that “If it feels like the pace is accelerating, it’s because it is.”
The June 23 date carries significance for advocates because it matches efforts to designate Social Media Harms Victim Remembrance Day. In 2024, senators Amy Klobuchar, a Minnesota Democrat, and Marsha Blackburn, a Tennessee Republican, introduced a resolution encouraging “the government, industry and community stakeholders to take action to prevent social media-related harm,” tied to families who say their children’s deaths were linked to social media harms.
The initiative has been led by the mothers of Carson Bride and Alexander Neville, both of whom died on June 23, according to the report. Carson died at age 16 after severe cyberbullying, and Alexander was 14 when a drug dealer connected with him on Snapchat and sold him the pill that killed him.