Senate lawmakers Tuesday interrogated the CEOs of Twitter, Google, and Facebook over allegations of bias against conservatives and inaction against “disinformation” and “hate speech” less than a week before the election.
“It’s becoming obvious that your companies are unfairly targeting conservatives,” Sen. Rick Scott, a Florida Republican, told Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, and Google CEO Sundar Pichai.
For the GOP, the hearing offered the first chance to grill Zuckerberg and Dorsey about their decision to block the New York Post’s reporting on corruption allegations surrounding the Biden family that could also involve Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden.
Democrats used the hearing to lambast the social media giants for failing to prevent Russian interference in the 2016 election and for refusing to censor President Trump, who they warned would use social media to cause post-election chaos if he does not win.
“President Trump has broken the norms,” Sen. Richard Blumenthal, a Connecticut Democrat, said. “And he has put on your platforms potentially dangerous and lethal misinformation and disinformation.”
At stake for the Big Tech firms is federal lawsuit liability protection, which is provided under Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act.
Lawmakers in both parties have called for reforming the law, and some want to strip away protections, arguing that Google, Twitter, and Facebook should not be shielded if they censor or show bias against certain contents.
“This liability shield has been pivotal in protecting online platforms from the endless and potentially ruinous lawsuits, but it has also given these internet platforms the ability to control, stifle, and even censor content in whatever manner meets their respective standards,” Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee Chairman Roger Wicker, a Mississippi Republican, said at the hearing. ”The time has come for that free pass to end.”
Dorsey warned lifting the shield “will remove free speech from the internet,” while Zuckerberg called on Congress to play a greater role in regulating the platform.
“The reality is that people have very different ideas and views about where the line should be,” Zuckerberg said. “Democrats often say that we don’t remove enough content, and Republicans often say we remove too much.”
Republicans have grown increasingly angered at perceived efforts to suppress conservative content.
The Senate Judiciary Committee last week voted to subpoena Dorsey and Zuckerberg over the Biden laptop story, which is still getting blocked on Twitter.
Both Twitter and Facebook employ former high-ranking Democratic Party operatives, and one of them, Facebook’s Andy Stone, made the decision to prevent reposting of the Biden story temporarily.
Republicans attacked Google over manipulation of its search engine, which they said was being used to suppress certain stories and elevate others.
“I think Google has more power than any company on the face of the planet,” Sen. Ted Cruz, a Texas Republican, said. “And the antitrust concerns are real. The impact of Google is profound. And expect that we will have continued and ongoing discussions about Google’s abuse of that power and its willingness to manipulate search outcomes to influence and change election results.”
The New York Post remains locked out of Twitter. Dorsey said the company can begin posting again if it “deletes the original tweet” about the Biden laptop story it reported.
Dorsey insisted Twitter is not picking and choosing which news can be seen on the platform, an accusation thrust on him by several GOP lawmakers.
Dorsey said the Biden story was initially banned from the site because Twitter believed the material was “hacked.”
“I hear the concerns and acknowledge them, but we want to fix it with more transparency,” Dorsey said.
Sen. Amy Klobuchar, a Minnesota Democrat, questioned Zuckerberg about Facebook’s tendency to promote divisive content in order to attract more views.
“The way I look at it, more divisiveness, more time in the platform, more time on the platform, the company makes more money,” Klobuchar told Zuckerberg. “Does that bother you what it’s done to our politics?”
Zuckerberg denied it and said most of the content “is things like making sure that you can see when your cousin had her baby.”
Klobuchar cut him off.
“That is not what I am talking about, the cousins and the babies here,” Klobuchar said. “I am talking about conspiracy theories and all of the things that I think the senators on both sides of the aisle know what I’m talking about, and I think it’s been corrosive.”
