[Congressional Record Volume 170, Number 21 (Tuesday, February 6, 2024)]
[Senate]
[Pages S413-S414]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                   Unanimous Consent Request--S. 1199

  Mr. HAWLEY. Mr. President, last week, the executives of some of the 
largest tech companies in the United States came before the U.S. 
Senate. And the world got to see, with all too vivid detail, just what 
these companies and these executives are doing to our children. And I 
say ``children'' advisedly. I am talking about 12- and 13- and 14- and 
15-year-old kids on these platforms--on Facebook, on Instagram, on 
SNAP--who are exposed to the most outrageous, unbelievable, grotesque, 
and vivid child sex abuse material known to mankind: images of 
exploitation, solicitations by pedophiles.
  It is unbelievable, indescribable material. And these platforms are 
absolutely awash with it. And we saw it last week. We heard the 
testimony. It was so bad that Mark Zuckerberg, the founder and CEO of 
Meta, actually felt forced to apologize to the parents there in the 
room and the parents across this country who have lost their children 
to suicide, whose children have suffered extraordinary harm because of 
the sex abuse material, the exploitative content that is all over Meta, 
that is all over these platforms.
  And oh, by the way, they are making an astounding profit. These 
companies are the most profitable companies in the world. They are the 
biggest companies in the history of the world. Facebook's share prices 
actually went up the day after Zuckerberg's testimony. It is 
unbelievable. Here they are making money hand over fist on destroying 
America's children.
  The numbers tell the tale. Think of this: In 2014, there were 1.1 
million reports of child sex abuse material online that year. That in 
itself is an incredible number--a million reports--but look at this: By 
2022, that number had risen to 32 million reports of child sex abuse 
material--child porn, child exploitation, solicitations. In just in 1 
year, there were 32 million reports. That is just the images that are 
actually being reported. Those are just the ones we know about. We know 
from the testimony of the tech executives, we know from the reporting 
of news agencies, we know from the investigations that have been done, 
we know from the parents, that these platforms are absolutely littered 
with, awash with, overrun with this material, and because of that, 
children are literally dying.
  Is it any coincidence that since the introduction of the smartphone 
and the ubiquity of these platforms in the hands of young people, that 
suicide rates and mental health crises have skyrocketed in this 
country?
  Oh, the platforms know, by the way. They absolutely know. A 
whistleblower testified before the U.S. Senate committee earlier this 
past year. He worked as a senior executive at Meta--that is Facebook. 
He knows Mark Zuckerberg personally. He was hired by Zuckerberg 
personally. He reported in part to Zuckerberg. Here is the thing, 
though: He had a teenage daughter. Yes, he had a teenage daughter who 
created an Instagram account, went online, and then told her father, 
this executive: Dad, you won't believe what I am seeing online. You 
won't believe what is happening to me online.
  So he looked into it, as any father would, and then he began to 
compile the data that he could find based on Instagram's own internal 
metrics, based on their user data and information. Here is a piece, 
just a piece, of what he found: that 37 percent of Instagram users 
between the ages of 13 and 15--let me say that again--37 percent of 
Instagram users between the ages of 13 and 15 had experienced unwanted 
nudity on the platform in the past 7 days.
  Let me just spell this out for you. It is largely, overwhelmingly 
young, teenage girls, young women, who are bombarded with--bombarded 
with--the most unbelievable pictures, content, conduct as soon as they 
get onto these platforms.
  Twenty-four percent of Instagram users between the ages of 13 and 15 
had received unwanted sexual advances in just the last 7 days, had been 
propositioned in 7 days.
  Seventeen percent of Instagram users in that same age range--young 
teenagers--had encountered self-harm content--how to commit suicide--
within the last 7 days.
  These are Instagram's own numbers. These were given to us by the 
whistleblower who, as an executive at Instagram, told Mark Zuckerberg 
about it. What did Mr. Zuckerberg do? Nothing. Absolutely nothing.
  Consider another case. Here is a picture of a young girl, 13 years 
old, named Issa. Issa doesn't actually exist. The New Mexico attorney 
general has launched an investigation into Meta--that is Facebook and 
Instagram--and their investigators created this profile.
  As you can see from the picture, she looks incredibly young. The 
profile picture information lists her as 13 years old. What happens as 
soon as she gets on the Meta platforms? As soon as she gets on the Meta 
platforms--this is all in court documents, by the way. Read it for 
yourself. It is horrifying. What happened was she was instantly added 
to a chat room with known pedophiles. What happened was her account was 
instantly bombarded with sexual material from older men. What happened 
was she was instantly sent multiple images of child sex abuse material 
over and over and over and over.
  Oh, and the tech executives--they know all about it, and they are not 
doing a thing about it. Why? Because they are not accountable.
  Here is the bottom line: This is the only industry in the country 
that can make a product that will literally kill you, and if it does, 
you can't do anything about it. If it kills your child, you can't do 
anything about it. If it harms you, you can't do anything about it. 
Think about this for a second. In this country, if a Coca-Cola 
manufacturer makes a bottle that explodes in your hands, you can sue 
them. If the drug company makes drugs that are full of adulterated 
products that cause harms that are not disclosed that kill people, you 
can sue them. If an automobile company makes cars that explode, you can 
sue them. Not these companies. No, not these companies. These companies 
have a special immunity from suit. How do they get that? Why, it was 
given to them. By whom? By this body. This body, almost 30 years ago, 
gave these powerful corporations total blanket immunity. They cannot be 
held responsible. They make products that kill; they cannot be held 
responsible.
  That is why we are here today. The Senate Judiciary Committee has 
heard testimony over and over again. We have written bills. We marked 
them up.
  The bill that I want the Senate to address today is one that has 
passed the Senate Judiciary Committee--get this--unanimously. 
Unanimously. Every Democrat. Every Republican. What does it do? Simple: 
It allows victims to have their day in court. It

[[Page S414]]

gives victims of these tech platforms the same right that victims of 
some car company or drug manufacturer or other product maker would 
have: the right to get into court; the basic American right to be 
heard; the right to hold accountable the most powerful corporations in 
the history of this Nation. That is what this bill does. I am proud to 
cosponsor it. I am proud that it received unanimous support in the 
committee.

  Mr. President, I will just say this: We have had hearings and 
hearings and hearings. We have had talks until there is no more talk to 
be done. It is time for Congress to act.
  Mr. Zuckerberg's apology is nice, but that is not going to help the 
victims of child sex abuse. What will help the victims of child sex 
abuse is the right to hold these companies accountable.
  It is time for Congress to act because, let's be honest, Congress 
helped create the problem. Do you want to know why there is sex abuse 
content overwhelming the internet? Because Congress enabled it. 
Congress did. Congress did. And the refusal now to allow victims to 
have their basic rights in court is allowing that child sex 
exploitation to continue and continue and continue. It is time to break 
the cycle.
  After Zuckerberg and the others came before the committee, after they 
apologized, I said now it is time for Congress to act. Let's take the 
work we have done, and let's put it on the floor. Let's act. Let's see 
where we are. Let's do something for victims. Let's right the wrongs 
that this body has helped create, and let's give victims the right to 
be heard.
  Mr. President, as if in legislative session and notwithstanding rule 
XXII, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to the immediate 
consideration of Calendar No. 69, S. 1199; further, that the bill be 
considered read a third time and passed and that the motion to 
reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table with no 
intervening action or debate.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Is there objection?
  Mr. WYDEN. Reserving the right to object.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Oregon.
  Mr. WYDEN. Mr. President, I very much share the stated goals of the 
STOP CSAM Act. Child sexual abuse material is a toxic plague on the 
internet. There are real victims who need real support and criminals 
who must be hunted down and locked up.
  I take a back seat to no one when it comes to helping kids and 
punishing predators. However, this bill would weaken the single 
strongest technology that now protects children and families--that's 
strong encryption. It will make it easier to punish sites that use 
encryption to secure private conversations and personal devices. While 
STOP CSAM's sponsors have argued that the bill does not target 
encryption, the bill explicitly allows courts to punish companies that 
offer strong encryption. It also would encourage scanning of content on 
user's phones or computers before information is sent over the 
internet, which has the same consequences as breaking encryption.
  Weakening encryption is probably the single biggest gift that you can 
give to the predators and the monsters who want to stalk and spy on 
kids. Sexual predators will have a far easier time stealing and 
extorting photographs of children, tracking their phones, and spying on 
their private messages once encryption is breached.
  Doing so threatens the privacy and security of every single law-
abiding American.
  I also think it is surprising that the Senator is asking to pass this 
bill at the very same time its sponsor is reportedly circulating an 
updated version of the bill with a number of changes. Although that new 
version of the legislation has not been made public, it certainly would 
be a mistake to pass legislation that apparently is still in the 
process of being revised.
  Mr. President, what this is all about is talking about doing 
something effective or actually taking effective action. I have 
proposed doing just that. We ought to focus on giving law enforcement 
officials the tools they need to find and prosecute criminals 
responsible for exploiting kids and spreading these vile materials 
online. That way, we can help keep kids from becoming victims in the 
first place.
  Let me also say that we can do this if Members support my bipartisan 
Invest in Child Safety Act. The bill directs $5 billion in mandatory 
funding to do three things which would ensure that we have an effective 
response for families and parents: one, give law enforcement agencies 
the tools and personnel they need to catch the predators who are 
creating and spreading CSAM; two, fund community-based programs to 
prevent at-risk kids from becoming victims in the first place; three, 
invest in programs to support survivors of abuse.
  Any legislation that doesn't include these pieces is missing the 
point; therefore, I object.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Objection is heard.
  The Senator from Missouri.
  Mr. HAWLEY. Mr. President, there you have it. There are the Big Tech 
talking points. The problem is that they are entirely false. I have the 
bill text in front of me--the bill text that, again, passed unanimously 
out of the Senate Judiciary Committee--that explicitly exempts 
encryption technology: page 184, lines 15 and following; page 185, 
lines 1 through 18. You can read it for yourself--explicitly exempts. 
That is not true at all. It is flatly false.
  I have been on this floor over and over and over again on this issue, 
and every time, we are told: Not today. Not this. A little more of 
that. Maybe if it were more bipartisan.
  This has unanimous support from the Judiciary Committee. Unanimous. 
Every Republican. Every Democrat.
  And we all know the truth here: that until victims can get into court 
and have the rights and dignity of every other American challenging any 
other company, this will not change.
  Congress created this problem. Congress created it by giving the most 
powerful companies in the world a sweetheart deal that they still have 
to this day.
  It is an easy choice: Are you with the corporations or are you with 
the American people? Are you with the big companies or are you with the 
child victims? That is the choice.
  I would just say to those who continue to support 230 with no 
exceptions, no exemptions, no reform, no recognition of the incredible 
danger it has unleashed for children, that they are on an island.
  This state of affairs cannot continue. It cannot continue to be that 
if Big Tech sells products that kill kids, they cannot be held 
responsible.
  It cannot continue to be that only these companies, the most powerful 
companies in the world, get a pass that nobody else gets, because 
nobody should get it.
  I am committed to coming to this floor and forcing votes as long as 
it takes--as long as it takes--until we get justice for victims, until 
they are heard, and until these companies are finally held accountable.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Oregon.
  Mr. WYDEN. Mr. President, I would ask unanimous consent to briefly 
respond to what my colleague has just repeated.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  Mr. WYDEN. And then I would ask unanimous consent for 5 minutes to 
speak in favor of a very talented jurist in Oregon, who will be voted 
on shortly.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Is there objection?
  Without objection, it is so ordered.
  Mr. WYDEN. Mr. President, first, with respect to my response to our 
colleague from Missouri, let me be clear on a point that technologists 
are clear on. This bill would weaken the strongest technology that 
protects children and families online: strong encryption. And this bill 
explicitly allows courts to punish companies that offer strong 
encryption. That is right at the center of my objection.