Graham, Durbin Lead Bipartisan Judiciary Committee Letter to Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg on Instagram Algorithm Facilitating Child Sexual Abuse Material

WASHINGTON – Senate Judiciary Committee Ranking Member Lindsey Graham (R-South Carolina), and Judiciary Committee Chairman Dick Durbin (D-Illinois), have sent a letter to Mark Zuckerberg, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Meta, regarding recent reporting that Instagram’s algorithm promotes and facilitates sexual interest in and activity with children, including the production and sharing of Child Sexual Abuse Material (CSAM).

The letter was also signed by Senators Marsha Blackburn (R-Tennessee), Chris Coons (D-Delaware), Dianne Feinstein (D-California), Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), John Kennedy (R-Louisiana), Amy Klobuchar (D-Minnesota), Peter Welch (D-Vermont) and Sheldon Whitehouse (D-Rhode Island).

“We are gravely concerned that Instagram’s failure to prevent this perverse use of its algorithms is not due to a lack of ability, but instead a lack of initiative and motivation,” wrote the senators.  “In other contexts, Meta has taken steps to map out user networks facilitated by its algorithm, and has even been able to suppress unlawful user content within those networks. 

“Nevertheless, the Stanford experts determined that Instagram has been ‘ineffective’ in preventing the growth of Self-Generated Child Sexual Abuse Material (SG-CSAM) networks on its platform, largely because of a ‘general lack of resources devoted to detecting SG-CSAM and associated commercial activity.’ It is alarming that online child sexual exploitation and the proliferation of CSAM, including SGCSAM, is not among Meta’s highest priorities—especially when its platform directly facilitates and bolsters the black market for child sexual abuse material.”

The senators concluded:

“This Committee has united across the political aisle to combat the evil of online child sexual exploitation. Tech companies cannot assist malevolent actors who seek to take advantage of children. As the experts at Stanford so succinctly articulated, ‘minors do not have the ability to meaningfully consent to the implications of having widely distributed explicit material and the other harms for which it puts them at risk.’  We refuse to let those who traffic in CSAM subject children to these harms and alter the course of their lives. And we refuse to accept Meta’s facilitation of these crimes. We therefore urge Meta to join us in combatting this threat.”

Full text of the letter is HERE.