Sen. Josh Hawley R-Mo., has written to Mark Zuckerberg and asked him to personally compensate the victims of his social media empire, Axios reported.
On Wednesday, the Meta CEO apologized to families at a U.S. Senate hearing about the impact that social media has had on children, after being pressed by Hawley to do so.
"I'm sorry for everything you have all been through. No one should go through the things that your families have suffered, and this is why we invest so much, and we are going to continue doing industry-wide efforts to make sure no one has to go through the things your families have had to suffer," Zuckerberg said.
On Thursday, Hawley sent a letter to Zuckerberg suggesting that he set up a victims' compensation fund. "Yesterday, you publicly apologized to the families of children exploited by your platforms. ... Now you can show the world you were sincere," Hawley wrote in his letter.
The letter continued, "I urge you to immediately create a fund endowed by your own personal wealth for the purpose of compensating those who have been victimized by your platforms. ... You amassed your fortune from Facebook's growth; but while your platform grew, so did its role in enabling child exploitation."
Zuckerberg highlighted Meta's tools for parental monitoring to help control what their children experience online as well as citing the company's industry leading efforts to remove harmful content of their platforms daily. Apart from Facebook, the other companies under the Meta umbrella are Instagram, Threads, and WhatsApp.
Meta did not respond to Axios for comment on Hawley's letter.
Zuckerberg is the fifth wealthiest individual on the planet, according to Forbes with an estimated wealth of $139 billion.
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