Scoop: X CEO Linda Yaccarino meets with lawmakers ahead of first congressional hearing

January 27, 2024

Source: Axios

Written by: Sara Fischer

X CEO Linda Yaccarino has been making the rounds on Capitol Hill ahead of her first-ever congressional testimony next week.

Why it matters: The hearing, which will focus on Big Tech’s efforts to protect children from sexual exploitation online, marks the first opportunity Yaccarino has to position X as a leader on an issue.

Details: Yaccarino met with more than half a dozen bipartisan members of the Senate, including Sen. Marsha Blackburn, last week, a source told Axios.

Yaccarino’s conversations focused mostly on X’s efforts to combat child sexual exploitation (CSE), given the nature of Wednesday’s Senate Judiciary Committee hearing.
On Saturday, the company announced a new trust and safety center of excellence in Austin, Texas, and vowed to hire more in-house agents to review exploitative material.
It also revealed a few stats that Yaccarino is likely to reference during the hearing, including that it suspended 12.4 million accounts for violating its CSE policies in 2023, up from 2.3 million accounts in 2022.

Of note: Minors ages 13-17 account for less than 1% of the platform’s U.S. daily users, per X’s announcement.

The big picture: The hearing and Capitol Hill visits serve as an important opportunity for Yaccarino to educate Washington on X’s policy efforts under Musk as its owner.

In addition to CSE, Yaccarino also discussed other policy issues with Senators last week, including content operation, privacy and misinformation, a source said.

What to watch: Yaccarino will share the stand with several other Big Tech CEOs Wednesday, including Discord CEO Jason Citron, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, Snap CEO Evan Spiegel and TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew.

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