I was in the Senate Judiciary Committee hearing room on January 31, 2024, when the CEOs of Meta, TikTok, X, Snap, and Discord faced hours of questioning about the harms their platforms have caused to children.
At one point, Senator Lindsey Graham looked directly at the executives and said:
“You have blood on your hands. You have a product that’s killing people.”
It was one of the defining moments of the hearing.
When it ended, I followed Graham and Senate Judiciary Chairman Dick Durbin into the hallway, where they stood before a bank of cameras. Surrounding the podium were parents holding photographs of children they had lost. The atmosphere was unlike anything I’ve experienced covering Congress.
Graham didn’t back away from what he’d said inside the hearing. If anything, he became even more direct.
“If you’re waiting on the industry to regulate itself, you’ll die waiting. If you’re waiting on them to give permission for the American consumer to take them to court, it ain’t gonna happen. If you’re waiting on them to help us pass a law, you can forget it.” LINK
He continued:
“I gave back all donations from social media companies. I would urge every member of Congress, don’t take any more of their money. They’re too powerful, but the most powerful thing today are the victims. You’re more powerful than all the money… You’ll never get change until you open up the American courtroom. To everybody holding up a photo today, you should be allowed to go into court and make your case. When that day happens, they’ll come up here in earnest to talk with us about how to bring this to an end.” LINK
And then he closed with words that have stayed with me ever since:
“I’m gonna end where I started. Social media, the way it’s designed and operated today, is a dangerous product. It’s destroying lives. It’s upending democracy. And it will get worse unless we act. To all those who held a photo today, if we’re able to be successful, your loved one did not die in vain. My goal is to make sure that your suffering will end other people’s potential suffering. Senator Durbin, we can do this. We must do this. Both parties have been resistant, but working with you, I pledge my complete and total support to go to the floor of the United States Senate and ask for a reckoning.” LINK
I don’t agree with Lindsey Graham on many issues. In fact, we would probably disagree on far more than we agree.
But on social media and Section 230, I think he was right.
His argument wasn’t about politics. It was about accountability. He wasn’t asking Congress to decide what speech should be allowed online. He was asking why the largest technology companies in history should enjoy legal protections that prevent families from even making their case in court.
For years, I’ve argued that social media companies have evolved from communications platforms into products whose algorithms shape behavior, amplify harmful content, and increasingly determine what billions of people see and believe. When those design decisions cause foreseeable harm, the companies should have to answer for them, just as manufacturers of any other product do.
Standing in that hallway, surrounded by parents clutching photographs of children they would never see again, this didn’t feel like a Republican issue or a Democratic issue.
It felt like a human one.
I’ve linked the full video below. It’s worth watching in its entirety. Whatever you think of Lindsey Graham’s politics, his remarks on Section 230 and accountability deserve to be heard in full.
