Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg was pushed to publicly apologise to the families of people who said they had been harmed by his social media platform, a dramatic moment in a testy congressional hearing over child safety online.

Zuckerberg, whose Meta is the parent of popular platforms Facebook and Instagram, came under particular fire by irate lawmakers from both sides of the political spectrum during the hearing before the Senate judiciary committee on Wednesday over whether social media companies have done enough to protect younger users from child predators, pornography and other harmful content.

The committee began by showing an evocative video of victims speaking about sexual abuse on the platforms, as well as parents of children who had died by suicide after being exploited online.