Senators demand Mark Zuckerberg produce details on Instagram's 'warning screens' that allowed users to see potential child sex abuse material

• Senators on the Judiciary Committee demanded in a letter that Meta produce information about Instagram's now-shuttered "warning screens" that allowed users to see potential child sexual abuse material.
• The letter, obtained by CNBC, follows a contentious January hearing where Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg was questioned about Instagram's policies related to such content.
• Both Republicans and Democrats in Congress want to pass legislation to hold social media companies more accountable for such material on their platforms. But the calendar and the looming 2024 elections complicate their efforts.

WASHINGTON — The Democratic chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee and one of its most senior Republicans escalated their demands Monday for information from Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg about Instagram's now-shuttered "warning screens" for child sexual abuse material, according to a letter first obtained by CNBC.

Sen. Dick Durbin, of Illinois, the committee's chairman, and Republican Sen. Ted Cruz, of Texas, gave Zuckerberg 11 days to produce a trove of records and responses related to a still-murky chapter in Instagram's history, and instructed the Facebook founder to preserve any records related to how the Meta platforms' algorithms handled child sexual abuse material.

The letter from Durbin and Cruz follows a contentious and emotional Judiciary Committee hearing in January about social media and child sexual abuse material. There, Zuckerberg was repeatedly pushed into the spotlight by Republicans and Democrats alike.

Cruz used part of his allotted questioning time to grill the Meta CEO on a formerly available feature on Instagram described as a "warning screen" that users needed to either heed or bypass before the social media