Meta covered up potential child harms, whistleblowers claim

Two former Meta safety researchers told a US Senate committee on Tuesday that the social media giant covered up potential harms to children stemming from its virtual reality (VR) products.

"Meta has chosen to ignore the problems they created and bury evidence of users' negative experiences," said Jason Sattizahn.

The hearing comes a day after the Washington Post reported the whistleblowers' allegations that Meta lawyers intervened to shape internal research that could have flagged risks.

Meta, the parent company of Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp, denies the allegations and in a statement referred to the "claims at the heart" of the hearing as "nonsense."

Mr Zuckerberg has also faced repeated questioning by US lawmakers who claim that the company pushes harmful content to young users.

At a Senate hearing last year, after being prodding by Senator Hawley, Mr Zuckerberg apologised to families who claimed their loved ones had been harmed by the company's products.

Several of them were sitting in the audience behind him.

"I'm sorry for everything you have all been though," Mr Zuckerberg said.

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