Hawley: 'I'll Never Forget Mark Zuckerberg Sitting Right Down There...'

At a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing, Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) remembered a moment with Mark Zuckerberg, and promoted the STOP CSAM Act.

Transcript

00:00To add my thanks to you for scheduling a markup on this important bill and to Senator Durbin

00:06for introducing it in the last Congress, for agreeing to work with me again this Congress.

00:12This is such an important piece of legislation whose time has more than come. I'll never forget

00:17Mark Zuckerberg sitting just right down there in the well of this room. Now it's been I guess

00:22almost two years ago when he finally stood up and turned around and apologized to the many victims,

00:29the parents and the children who have been exploited on his platform. And apologies are

00:34more than necessary, but apologies are by no means sufficient. And it is time that we demanded

00:39more than an apology. It's time that we gave the victims on Mr. Zuckerberg's platform and every

00:45platform, the victims of child sexual exploitation material, the right to get into court, to sue those

00:51who have harmed them, to hold accountable those platforms who know or should have known that this

00:56material was on their platform and that they were benefiting from it. This bill also includes

01:01enhanced protections for child victims in federal courts. It's got enhanced restitution for children.

01:06It's got new trend, tough transparency requirements for these platforms for Nick Mick. This is a tough

01:12bill. It is a needed bill. And as Senator Durbin, I remember remarked last year, it was a minor miracle,

01:19maybe not minor, maybe major miracle to get it through this committee unanimously. I mean,

01:24we can't get a unanimous vote on vanilla ice cream, probably. I look forward to, I hope,

01:29repeating that today and getting it onto the floor and getting it passed. It's been a real privilege

01:33to work with Senator Durbin on this for now. It's going on a couple of years. I thank him again for

01:37this and I'm happy to answer questions my colleagues might have. Thank you again, Mr. Chairman. I hope

01:41we can advance this quickly. I'll open it up for first.