Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg and Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) got into a heated back-and-forth about Instagram's lack of safeguards to prevent people from searching for child sexual abuse material at the Senate Judiciary Committee’s Big Tech hearing Wednesday.
Cruz at one point showed Zuckerberg what he said was a screenshot of an example message someone would get if they attempted to search for such material:
“Instagram also displayed the following warning screen to individuals who were searching for child abuse material: ‘These results may contain images of child sexual abuse.’ And then you gave users two choices: ‘Get resources’ or ‘See results anyway.’ Mr. Zuckerberg, what the hell were you thinking?”
“All right, senator, the basic science behind that is that when people are searching for something that is problematic, it’s often helpful to, rather than just blocking it, to help direct them towards something that could be helpful for getting them to get help,” Zuckerberg replied.
“I understand ‘get resources’ — in what sane universe is there a link for ‘see results anyway’?” Cruz shouted back.
“Well, because we might be wrong,” Zuckerberg said.
