The White House intervened to try to spare Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg and Google CEO Sundar Pichai from appearing at an upcoming Senate hearing on their companies’ child safety practices, five people with knowledge of the events told POLITICO.
Instead, Judiciary Chair Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) has agreed to let the heads of the tech giants’ Instagram and YouTube brands testify in the chief executives’ place at next month’s hearing, tentatively scheduled for July 28, four of the people said. And in turn, the White House is supporting a Grassley-backed package of bills — called the James T. Woods Act — aimed at combating online child exploitation, they added.
The five people, who were not directly involved in negotiations between the White House and the tech companies, were granted anonymity to discuss the private negotiations. Four of the people cautioned that the list of executives testifying at the hearing is still unfinished and subject to change.
The White House involvement, which has not been previously reported, illustrates tech giants’ ability to leverage their alliances with President Donald Trump’s administration, even under intense scrutiny from lawmakers and courts about their platforms’ impact on society.
“Chairman Grassley isn’t interested in simply generating clicks and views online like past hearings. He’s working to get lifesaving child safety legislation actually signed into law,” a Grassley spokesperson told POLITICO. “The Grassley-Durbin James T. Woods Act is hugely bipartisan and widely supported because it’s universally recognized this bill will save kids’ lives. Chairman Grassley is committed to being an effective senator, conducting oversight of Big Tech and getting laws passed that will protect America’s children.”
A Meta spokesperson declined to comment. A Google spokesperson said the company “did not engage with the White House on the hearing or ask them to intervene.”
A White House official said the administration supports the bipartisan James T. Woods Act because it would strengthen federal law against online child exploitation, create new criminal offenses targeting technology-enabled abuse and direct a review of sentencing guidelines to ensure penalties reflect the seriousness of those crimes. The official said it was normal for the White House to back such a measure, which builds on the Take It Down Act S. 146 (119) and other efforts to combat child sexual abuse material and protect children online.
Grassley previously called on Zuckerberg, Pichai and the chief executives of TikTok and Snap to testify at next month’s hearing, which he billed as exploring the question “Is This Social Media’s Big Tobacco Moment?” The hearing is expected to focus on child online safety, according to three of the people.
It comes as social media companies are facing wide-ranging litigation under the same types of product-liability law that states once used to target cigarette makers, a trend that is showing signs of spreading to AI. The string of recent litigation includes a March verdict in which a California jury found that Meta and YouTube had negligently designed addictive platforms that harmed children, and a New Mexico case in which a jury found Meta liable for endangering kids.
People representing Meta met with White House staff about the hearing in late May and early June, according to three of the people with knowledge of the events.
In discussions with committee staff, Meta and Google representatives expressed concerns that the hearings would only further worsen negative attention arising from recent child online safety litigation, they added.
After a back and forth, the White House agreed to publicly support Grassley’s James T. Woods Act on the condition that Grassley permit lower-profile executives from Meta and Google to testify, according to the same three people.
YouTube CEO Neal Mohan would appear for Google while Adam Mosseri, the head of Instagram, would stand in for Zuckerberg, four of the people said. The committee also expects Snap CEO Evan Spiegel and the CEO of TikTok’s American-owned joint venture company, Adam Presser, to testify, POLITICO reported Tuesday.
Committee members could still subpoena Zuckerberg and Pichai to compel their attendance. Meanwhile, Meta is pushing for an even less prominent executive than Mosseri to appear, one of the people said.
Congressional committees have previously subpoenaed the CEOs of Big Tech companies to testify before Congress, including over kids’ online safety in 2023.
In January 2024, then-Judiciary Chair Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) and ranking member Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) worked together to push tech CEOs to appear at a hearing where Zuckerberg dramatically stood and apologized to relatives of children harmed by social media.
Since then, Meta and Google have made a concerted effort to cultivate their relationships with Trump and his White House.
Tech leaders, including those at Meta, have promised to help Trump pay for his new White House ballroom. Meta and Google each donated $1 million to Trump’s inauguration fund, and both Zuckerberg and Pichai were given prominent seats on the dais at Trump’s inauguration. Most recently, Zuckerberg was spotted in the crowd at this month’s mixed martial arts fight on the White House lawn.
Jordain Carney and Cheyenne Haslett contributed to this report.