Lauren Feiner

After the hearing resumed following a short break, Sen. Laphonza Butler (D-CA) accused Zuckerberg of giving her a different answer in private last night and at the hearing today. Butler asked each CEO if they had consulted with families about their product designs. Zuckerberg said at the hearing that he has over the years had such conversations. Butler said that contradicted what he previously told her.

“Have you apologized to the victims?” Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) asked Zuckerberg, referring to children targeted by predators on social media. Before he could answer, several members of the audience shouted “no.”

Zuckerberg sparred with Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) over a feature on Instagram that warns users that something they’re looking for contains child sexual abuse material. As The Wall Street Journal reported last year, the feature includes an option for the user to “See results anyway” below a link to resources. Cruz grilled Zuckerberg on why the service would include such an option, which the CEO said is because the warnings can in some cases be wrong.

In their opening statements, the CEOs made their cases to lawmakers for why their platforms shouldn’t be lumped together with the others at the witness table.

The audience in the hearing room is unusually responsive as far as congressional hearings go. Opening statements were met with applause and supportive laughter in response to their admonishment of the tech CEOs and calls for stronger safeguards for kids online. It’s the kind of call and response that is more often heard in political debates, rather than during the lawmaking process.

As the room for today’s hearing filled up with members of the public, several rows of advocates stood silently and in unison with images of teens or children. They remained standing for many minutes until the chair banged the gavel.

We’re on Capitol Hill now, awaiting the testimony of the five tech CEOs: X’s Linda Yaccarino, TikTok’s Shou Zi Chew, Snap’s Evan Spiegel, Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg, and Discord’s Jason Citron. People have just started to take their seats and settle in for what is likely to be a lengthy event.