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Senator Hawley Gets Mark Zuckerberg to Apologize to Victims of Child Sexual Abuse – Twitchy

January 31, 2024
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Senator Hawley Gets Mark Zuckerberg to Apologize to Victims of Child Sexual Abuse – Twitchy
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Today, Mark Zuckerberg testified before Congress and the subject (at least in part) was child sexual abuse material being promoted on Facebook and Instagram. Senator Cruz had beat on Zuckerberg, metaphorically, here:

And that led to an exchange where Senator Hawley invited Zuckerberg to apologize … and then he did:

First, you should know by now how this game is played. Very often members of Congress force people in charge of media companies to appear before them to basically chew them out for what they think is bad behavior. It might be a movie company, a newspaper or website, or, in this case, the head of a social networking company. Sometimes what they think is bad behavior is genuinely bad. Certainly, Instagram helping pedophiles find child abuse material qualifies. And sometimes it really isn’t, like if a Democratic politician tries to pressure Twitter/X to suspend a popular conservative account.

Second, we are going to have to disagree with Ted Cruz on the issue of people clicking on the material anyway. One of this author’s best friends, the late John Hoge (@wjjhoge) had a problem for a while on Twitter/X. In his day job, he worked for NASA, so it shouldn’t surprise you that he liked astronomy. So, on his blog (Hogewash), he ran a regular feature called ‘Star Porn’ where he would post various astronomy-related pictures and he would promote them via Twitter/X. Here’s an example of one of these posts:

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Harmless, right? Well, except that for a while, Twitter/X started attaching sensitive content warnings, which made you have to click through to see them. It got bad enough that he ended up having to send a Cease and Desist Letter to their legal department to get them to stop—and they did eventually stop. But as the result of this and other behavior we have seen, this author doesn’t trust these kinds of content warnings and we don’t know why anyone should. So, we don’t think a person clicking on the media anyway really means very much, contrary to what Senator Cruz thinks. We think the only thing it proves is that you don’t trust these warnings.

Finally, we think there was a real dilemma Zuckerberg faced when deciding whether to apologize. Very often the moment someone apologizes, a scandal kicks into high gear. For instance, Conservatives had been complaining for years about political discrimination at the hands of the IRS in terms of getting charities designated as such by the IRS during the Obama adminstration. But that scandal didn’t explode until Lois Lerner apologized for doing it, because the apology was also simultaneously an admission there was something to complain about (it wasn’t just in our imagination) and because it was an admission that their conduct was wrong. So, Zuckerberg risks kicking the scandal on this issue into high gear by what he said.

But at the same time, if he didn’t even apologize after damning presentations like that given by Senator Cruz, he would arguably look like an unfeeling monster. As another Twitchy writer, Coucy wrote to us via direct message: ‘for a guy who’s popularly viewed as being an inhuman robot having a relatively human moment of getting up to apologize when it’s suggested is probably good from a PR standpoint[.]’ We tend to think that is right and, even if was a totally calculated move on Zuckerberg’s part, it’s a smart move.

It’s certainly not the clear self-own that Mark Cuban had the other day. Heh. 

Of course there were also reactions. We will start with reactions to the apology:

It raises a good point. While we now know how much pressure was being put on social media companies by the government to censor people speaking out against vaccines and bringing up Hunter Biden’s laptop, the same people didn’t seem nearly as interested in stopping the flow of child abuse material.

We are not going to attempt to verify that claim about their testicles.

And, of course, Senator Cruz’s questioning got reactions, too:

Well, first, he is probably technically a naturally born American citizen by statute. We haven’t looked into it, but that would be our guess. Second, you don’t have to be a natural born citizen to hold most offices in American politics, including Senator. The only two offices you have to be a natural born American citizen to hold is President and Vice President.

And it is weird to lodge that complaint when he is trying to reduce access to child sexual abuse material.

Yeah, it’s funny about that. We are old enough to remember that Parler wasn’t allowed to have its application in the Apple App Store or Google Play Store because they didn’t do enough to censor people. But for some reason, Instagram actually promoted child sexual abuse material, and was never suspended? What a telling set of priorities we keep seeing.

Finally, to shift gears a little, some of you might not have known that this author’s friend, John Hoge, had passed on, as we mentioned above. We announced it on Twitter/X the day of and it got some reach, but we still run into people who just missed it somehow, which is perfectly normal. If you missed it, here’s where we announced his passing:

The full text reads:

I want to take a moment to announce that my best friend, John Hoge (@wjjhoge) has passed on. His son, William Hoge IV, called me this morning to share the terrible news. Earlier today, he was driving as normal when he had a heart attack. What little chance he had of surviving was foreclosed when he struck the side railing on the road. I am told that no other persons were hurt in that accident. I have no doubt that John would be glad to hear that no one else was harmed.

A few years ago, his beloved wife, Connie Hoge had also passed on. I don’t think he ever fully got over losing her and I think everyone who knows him would be comforted by the thought that they are together again in heaven. Maybe doing some slow dancing. Maybe just enjoying each other’s company.

Will is still working through the details, such as when he will be memorialized. I am sure Will would appreciate any thoughts and prayers for John and everyone who cared for him. And I am sure John would want well-wishers to donate to Connie’s Fund, here: https://hogewash.com/connies-fund/ 

(But you might also save your money possibly to help Will with final expenses.)

I know many people online and offline will be mourning him. I will not be able to name them all, and I won’t try. But of particular mention is @PatriarchTree, @GrizzlyJoeShow, @RonColeman, @yidwithlid and @kagsundaram. I am sure I am leaving out ppl who don’t deserve it. I apologize in advance to those ppl.

We lost a good one today, folks.

We have no doubt that his loved ones would appreciate any prayers you wished to offer.

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