{"id":309106,"date":"2026-07-29T20:30:12","date_gmt":"2026-07-29T20:30:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/309106\/"},"modified":"2026-07-29T20:30:12","modified_gmt":"2026-07-29T20:30:12","slug":"sen-chuck-grassley-puts-mark-zuckerberg-on-hot-seat-after-nyc-meta-worker-admits-to-trying-to-sext-child","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/309106\/","title":{"rendered":"Sen. Chuck Grassley puts Mark Zuckerberg on hot seat after NYC Meta worker admits to trying to sext child"},"content":{"rendered":"

Sen. Chuck Grassley<\/a> is demanding answers from Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg<\/a> after a former company engineer who created \u201cdigital experiences for kids\u201d admitted on camera he tried to sext a 13-year-old.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Grassley \u2014 a powerful Iowa Republican who serves as the Senate\u2019s president pro tempore \u2014 sent a scathing letter to the Facebook founder in the wake of the disturbing confession of 44-year-old engineering manager Josh Felker, who was caught in undercover sting by the Predator Poachers Long Island<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Sen. Chuck Grassley is demanding answers from Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg in light of The Post\u2019s exposing of a company engineer \u2014 who created \u201cdigital experiences for kids\u201d \u2014 for admitting to trying to sext a 13-year-old.\u00a0 CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images<\/p>\n

Felker, 44, who has since been placed on leave from the Facebook parent company, was arrested on July 15 after admitting to the group in a now-viral video<\/a> that he had been grooming and sexting someone he thought was a teen girl who doesn\u2019t actually exist.<\/p>\n

The Meta worker had made a number of disturbing statements in the video, including that he would like to be the girl he attempted to groom\u2019s father.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThese allegations raise significant questions regarding Meta\u2019s internal governance, employee screening, trust and safety culture, and controls for employees who work on products and experiences designed for children,\u201d Grassley wrote in the letter sent to Zuckerburg on Wednesday, referencing The Post\u2019s exclusive reporting on the sting<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey also raise questions about Meta\u2019s processes for identifying, investigating, and responding to employee misconduct,\u201d the letter added.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Grassley questioned the tech giant\u2019s internal vetting practices, oversight for employees working on children\u2019s products, and asked whether the company has ever knowingly kept registered sex offenders<\/a> on its payroll.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The 92-year-old Republican, who chairs the Senate Judiciary Committee<\/a> and is the chamber\u2019s second-highest-ranking member behind the vice president, gave Meta until Aug. 12 to answer eight pointed questions regarding The Post\u2019s reporting and the Predator Poachers\u2019 sting.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Mark Zuckerberg, 42, is the CEO of Meta and founder of Facebook. REUTERS<\/p>\n

These questions include asking Zuckerberg to address each allegation made against Felker, whether the engineer had access to non-public user data or internal systems tied to minors\u2019 personal accounts, and whether he had any internal complaints lodged against him.<\/p>\n

Grassley also demanded Meta turn over a full accounting of every internal complaint, arrest and allegation of sexual misconduct toward minors lodged against its employees over the past decade and describe, in detail, the background screening and vetting processes for hiring employees that work on developing \u201cdigital experiences for children.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe foxes must not be allowed to guard the hen house,\u201d Grassley wrote.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Wednesday\u2019s letter is now the fourth in just over a year that Grassley has sent pressing Zuckerberg on child safety failures at the social media giant \u2014 and he made clear his patience has run out.<\/p>\n

Felker, 44, was arrested and has since been placed on leave from the Facebook parent company after he admitted on-camera that he had been grooming and sexting someone he thought was a teen girl. pplongisland\/Instagram<\/p>\n

\u201cTo date, Meta has failed to fully and completely respond to my questions and document requests,\u201d Grassley wrote.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The senator noted he first wrote to Meta in April 2025 over whistleblower claims<\/a> the company targeted ads at teens based on their emotional states, then again in September 2025 over reports of bullying and sexual harassment on its Horizon Worlds platform<\/a>, and for a third time later that month over allegations that the company misrepresented the mental health risks and sexual exploitation<\/a> he said runs rampant on its platforms.<\/p>\n

A Meta spokesperson didn\u2019t directly address Grassley\u2019s letter, but told The Post, \u201cThis employee is no longer with the company and we are cooperating with law enforcement in its investigation.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Sen. Chuck Grassley is demanding answers from Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg after a former company engineer who created…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":309107,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[116936,48513,32912,57,9,56,63,65,64,19301,58],"class_list":["post-309106","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york-city","tag-chuck-grassley","tag-mark-zuckerberg","tag-meta","tag-metro","tag-new-york","tag-ny","tag-nyc","tag-nyc-headlines","tag-nyc-news","tag-sexual-predators","tag-us-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/309106","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=309106"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/309106\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/309107"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=309106"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=309106"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=309106"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}