Disinformation Hearing with Facebook, Google and Twitter CEOs
Congress is set to grill the chief executives of Facebook, Google and Twitter about misinformation and online extremism on Thursday. This is going to be the executive’s first appearance before lawmakers since the Jan.6 Capitol riots and the rollout of the coronavirus vaccine.
In opening statements made available before the hearing , Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg, Twitter’s Jack Dorsey and Google’s Sundar Pichai each laid out the conversation they’d prefer to have.
Zuckerberg pushed for reforms to Section 230 of the Communication Decency Act that wouldn’t resolve the issues at hand, but would probably give Facebook another leg up on smaller competitors. Google defended Section 230 and pointed to its own often mild or delayed efforts to contain election which can somehow be connected to the attack on the U.S Capitol . Twitter mostly looked forward rather than back, pointing to an initiative in order to make its own algorithms transparent and to invite more community-level moderation efforts.
In recent months, the two subcommittees leading the joint hearing have questioned Facebook about its algorithmic group recommendation – a frequent concern among extremism experts- and reports that the company served combat gear ads next to posts promoting the Capitol riots. More broadly, the committee will delve into social media’s role in disseminating dangerous misinformation, but it’s possible we’ll take detours through some regulatory solution like antitrust legislation and section 230 reform along the way.
