Though they initially declined to attend, X's Linda Yaccarino and the bosses of Snap and Discord will also be part of the Senate Judiciary Committee panel on January 31 after receiving subpoenas ordering their attendance.
"We've known from the beginning that our efforts to protect children online would be met with hesitation from Big Tech," senators Dick Durbin, a Democrat, and Republican Lindsey Graham said in a joint statement.
"They finally are being forced to acknowledge their failures when it comes to protecting kids," they added.
The toxic effects of social media on young people has become the latest center of attention for lawmakers in the United States, who otherwise struggle to pass federal legislation to curb Big Tech amid political divisions and heavy lobbying by the industry.
Still, the senators' statement noted there were five pieces of legislation with bipartisan support addressing the dangers for children online that were currently being considered.
For now, social media platforms are mainly subject to a legal onslaught in state courtrooms and legislatures.
Meta faces a joint lawsuit by prosecutors in 33 states alleging that the company was aware its accounts were being used by underage consumers but did nothing about it.
TikTok meanwhile is facing an outright ban in the state of Montana for its links to the Chinese government.
Its use is not allowed on US government devices and the White House is currently undertaking a security review to determine whether the popular video-sharing app can still operate in the country.
TikTok chief executive Chew faced a grilling in Congress earlier this year over the company's alleged Beijing ties.
Meta faces second EU challenge to 'pay for privacy'
Paris (AFP) Nov 30, 2023 -
European consumer groups lodged Thursday a complaint against Meta's system allowing Facebook and Instagram users to pay to opt out of data tracking, the second challenge this week.
Meta sells data on its users to advertisers but has long struggled to provide a justification that satisfies EU data privacy laws.
The Silicon Valley firm began allowing users of Instagram and Facebook in Europe to pay between 10 and 13 euros (around $11 and $14) a month to opt out of data sharing earlier this month.
But European consumer groups said the choice was not legal.
"This is an unfair choice for users, which runs afoul of EU consumer law on several counts and must be stopped," said a statement from the European Consumer Organisation (BEUC), a Brussels-based umbrella group.
It said 19 of its members had launched a joint complaint with Europe's network of consumer protection authorities.
"Meta is breaching EU consumer law by using unfair, deceptive and aggressive practices," said Ursula Pachl, BEUC's deputy director.
On Tuesday, Austrian privacy group NOYB filed a complaint with the data protection authority in Vienna over the same issue.
NOYB, which has won countless cases against Meta, said Meta's new system violated data privacy laws because consent was not "freely given" if the only alternative was to pay.
Meta has not responded to AFP requests for comment on the challenges, but said when it announced the change in October that it "balances the requirements of European regulators while giving users choice".
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