Tech hearing live updates: Facebook, Google, Twitter CEOs clash with Congress in pre-election showdown - The Washington Post

Senate Democrats and Republicans grilled the chief executives of Facebook, Google and Twitter on Wednesday at a highly partisan, wide-ranging review of their content-moderation practices less than a week before Election Day.

But the hearing is a public trial of sorts for Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg, Google’s Sundar Pichai and Twitter’s Jack Dorsey, who appeared virtually and faced tough questions about the way they have handled hate speech, extremist content and election disinformation, including the most controversial online comments from President Trump.

Senate lawmakers concluded their hearing with Facebook, Google and Twitter after nearly four hours of highly partisan questioning — and bickering, often with each other.

For Facebook and Twitter, however, the end of the hearing does not mark the end of their time on Capitol Hill: Another panel of lawmakers is aiming to grill Zuckerberg and Dorsey about their content-moderation policies next month.

Ted Cruz (R-TX) even said, “I think Google has more power than any company on the face of the planet.”.

Few people said Jack Dorsey or Mark Zuckerberg’s last name incorrectly, except a brief moment when Sen.

President Trump appeared to be following developments from the tech hearing on the Hill on Wednesday, at least based on his tweets.

Facebook has previously said that any post prematurely declaring victory will get a label attached to it that shows the actual vote tallies and other accurate information.

Zuckerberg said the company had disabled group recommendations for groups that deal with political or social issues.

He said the tech companies have “a lot of responsibility” on their shoulders in the coming days.

Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.) questioned Zuckerberg about the organizing of militant groups on Facebook, saying that many people reported troubling posts online before the fatal shooting of two people in Kenosha, Wis., in August.

Zuckerberg said in August that Facebook erred by not taking down an event that called for armed civilians to defend the streets in Kenosha.

Zuckerberg acknowledges Facebook erred by not removing a post that urged armed action in Kenosha.

Zuckerberg acknowledged to Baldwin during the hearing that militant groups organizing online is a “big area of concern” for the company.

“In this period, where I’m personally, I’m worried about potential of increased civil unrest, making sure that those groups can’t organize on Facebook may cut off some legitimate uses, but I think they will also preclude greater potential for organizing any harm,” Zuckerberg said.

He said the company is now in a “stronger place” to moderate those policies than it was in August.

The chief executives of Facebook, Google and Twitter promised to continue to push back against foreign interference during the hearing.

Zuckerberg said Facebook sees continued attempts to interfere in its service from Russia and other countries, especially Iran and China.

Facebook and Twitter are facing criticism from conservatives over the unusual steps they took to limit the spread of a New York Post report about a trove of emails allegedly belonging to Joe Biden’s son.

Zuckerberg said the company spends “upwards of three or more billion” dollars a year on its 35,000 content moderators, who are largely third party contractors and not full employees.

Democratic lawmakers continue to blast Republicans out of a belief that the hearing Wednesday is merely an attempt to “bully” Facebook, Google and Twitter into giving President Trump favorable treatment online.

Roger Wicker (R-Miss.) grilled Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey about labeling Trump’s tweets and listed tweets by other users, including a Chinese official, that he criticized Dorsey for being too slow to respond to or taking no action at all.

Conferencing in from their remote locations, tech executives Jack Dorsey, Mark Zuckerberg and Sundar Pichai each choose bland backgrounds for their video backgrounds.

Ted Cruz (R-Texas) aggressively questioned Twitter chief executive Jack Dorsey, as the lawmaker asserted that tech giants “collectively pose the single greatest threat to free speech in America and the greatest threat we have to free and fair elections.”.

Dorsey told Cruz that the New York Post would be able to begin tweeting again once they removed links to the articles.

“This is why I opened this hearing with calls for more transparency,” Dorsey said.

Senators asked Zuckerberg whether Facebook was involved in promoting violent extremism, and whether the company could off-ramp people from extremist viewpoints.

Zuckerberg said the company already did “a little bit” of off-ramping.

Senator Amy Klobuchar (D-MI), pushed Zuckerberg further when he said Facebook was about more positive things, such as getting notified when a person’s cousin has a baby.

Republicans aren’t just attacking Facebook, Google and Twitter over allegations that they are biased against conservatives.

The heads of Facebook, Google and Twitter are set to testify virtually in front of the Senate Commerce Committee

Read their testimony here: Twitter | Google | Facebook

Lawmakers are expected to question Mark Zuckerberg, Sundar Pichai and Jack Dorsey on Section 230

In July, the leaders behind Amazon, Apple, Facebook and Google testified before the House Judiciary subcommittee on antitrust, commercial and administrative law