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1 Mark Zuckerberg Apologizes To Parents At Congressional Hearing
The Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on online child safety yesterday saw some dramatic moments with the head of Meta. During the grilling by senators of the CEOs of TikTok, Discord, X, Snap, and Meta, Sen. Josh Hawley and others put a lot of pressure on Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg. The committee room had many parents in attendance who were there to support the Kids Online Safety Act, which would create a duty of care for social media companies. At one point in the questioning, Hawley asked Zuckerberg if he wanted to take the opportunity to apologize to the parents in attendance, and he did. Standing from his seat and turning to face the crowd, Zuckerberg told the parents he was sorry, then said: “this is why we invest so much and are going to continue doing industry-leading efforts to make sure that no one has to go through the types of things that your families have had to suffer.” Meta is the target of a federal lawsuit from dozens of states that allege that Facebook and Instagram intentionally created “psychologically manipulative” features to keep kids addicted. Sen. Hawley also asked Zuckerberg if he would set up a victim compensation fund with his own money to benefit those impacted by Meta’s websites, but Zuckerberg deflected the question multiple times. Sam Chapman, the father of a 16-year-old boy who died in 2021 after overdosing on a fentanyl-laced pill he allegedly got from someone he met on Snapchat, told ABC News that Zuckerberg’s apology was “halfhearted,” saying that the CEO “did really apologize directly.”
2 House Passes Expanded Child Tax Credit With Large Bipartisan Majority
Last night saw the strongest bipartisan support seen in the House of Representatives in a while. A bill expanding the child tax credit passed overwhelmingly by a 357 to 70 vote, with 169 Republicans voting in favor of the bill and 47 voting nay. On the Democratic side of the aisle, 188 representatives voted for the bill while 23 Democrats voted against it. While such a bipartisan vote is rare in the current Congress, the lopsided vote is only half of the fight to pass the legislation. The bill now moves to the Senate, where it will need 60 votes to pass. It’s not yet clear if there are enough votes in the Senate to send the bill to President Biden’s desk. One of the senators who has concerns about the bill is Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley, who was blunt yesterday that President Biden is a large part of the reason he’s against it. Grassley said yesterday in comments ahead of the vote that “Passing a tax bill that makes the president look good – mailing out checks before the election – means he could be re-elected, and then we won’t extend the 2017 tax cuts.” Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer told reporters yesterday that he supports the tax bill, but declined to say when it would come to a vote in the Senate or if the version passed by the House would be amended.
3 The FDA Is Warning About Contaminated Eye Drops
The Food and Drug Administration is warning everyone about copycat eye drops because they can lead to infections. The brands South Moon, Rebright, and FivFivGo are packaged to look similar to Bausch + Lomb’s Limify brand eye drops according to the FDA and claim to address conditions like glaucoma. Samples tested by the FDA of South Moon and Rebright were tainted with burkholderia cepacian complex, a group of bacteria that could cause an antibiotic-resistant infection. A separate recall on eye drops last year resulted in 28 products being pulled from shelves, and the products were linked to four deaths and multiple cases of vision loss.