Linda Yaccarino, CEO, X/Twitter speaks onstage throughout Vox Media’s 2023 Code Conference at The Ritz-Carlton, Laguna Niguel on September 27, 2023 in Dana Point, California.
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Lawmakers stated Monday that they’ve issued subpoenas to the CEOs of X, Snap and Discord to compel the executives to testify on a listening to relating to on-line child sexual exploitation.
Sens. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., and Lindsey Graham, R-SC, stated they issued the subpoenas to the executives after “repeated refusals to appear during several weeks of negotiations.”
“Since the beginning of this Congress, our Committee has rallied around a key bipartisan issue: protecting children from the dangers of the online world,” the senators wrote in a joint assertion. “It’s at the top of every parent’s mind, and Big Tech’s failure to police itself at the expense of our kids cannot go unanswered.”
The senators stated the Senate Judiciary Committee required the help of the U.S. Marshals Service to personally serve the subpoenas to Discord and X, which they characterised as “a remarkable departure from typical practice.”
“At our February hearing on protecting children’s safety online, we promised Big Tech that they’d have their chance to explain their failures to protect kids,” Durbin and Graham wrote. “Now’s that chance. 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.”
Wifredo Fernandez, the pinnacle of U.S. and Canada authorities affairs at X, previously Twitter, advised CNBC in an announcement that the corporate 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,” Fernandez stated.
Discord and Snap did not instantly reply to requests for remark.
The senators stated they’ve additionally been speaking with Meta and TikTookay. They stated they count on Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg and TikTookay’s Shou Zi Chew to testify voluntarily throughout the Dec. 6 listening to.
WATCH: CNBC’s full interview with X Corp. CEO Linda Yaccarino
