US Senators Grill Facebook & Twitter Execs, While Google Bunks
Twitter CEO, Jack Dorsey and Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg appear at the US Senate hearing.
Facebook and Twitter executives plan to defend their companies in two congressional hearings, arguing that they are aggressively trying to root out foreign actors who want to do the United States harm just weeks before the midterm elections.
One chair will be occupied by the Chief Operating Officer (COO) of Facebook, Sheryl Sandberg while Twitter's CEO, Jack Dorsey will also be at the receiving end of some angry Republicans who claim the companies have shown evidence of bias against conservatives.
Google too was to be present at this hearing, but the company did not send a senior executive. Either Google CEO Sundar Pichai or Alphabet CEO Larry Page were supposed to attend the hearing. Follow the live blog below.
You can also read how Facebook CEO, Mark Zuckerberg was grilled by the US Senate on privacy concerns five months ago.
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Twitter CEO, Jack Dorsey & Sheryl Sandberg answer US Senate Questions.
Dorsey to Senate Chairman Richard Burr: Developing policies and products going forward. Not only hosting open conversations but also participation. Open to collaboration with the law to make it a more efficient system.
For Facebook, collaboration has great increased and doing better says Sandberg.
US Senate Vice Chairman Mark Warner to Dorsey and Sandberg.
Jack Dorsey says people have more access to know who is contacting them. Users can add context to accounts. Users can be intimated whether they are being contacted by AI bots or genuine users.
Facebook’s Sandberg mentions users have access to the data that Facebook is collecting and can also download their data.
Jack Dorsey live tweets his entire opening statement (that’s some skill there, actually not - you can save your tweets as drafts and publish them when you want).
James E. Risch has Questions on Hate Speech
Sandberg says that language that leads to violence is not permitted on that platform and Twitter CEO Dorsey shares the same views.
Risch asks whether there is any way for Facebook to find any distinction between US citizens and people from other countries.
Sandberg says, Facebook asks people to distinguish where they are from. People are allowed to talk about any country, but are not allowed to talk about hate. But they are not allowed to interfere or influence elections. Facebook is also looking to dive into transparency.
Twitter is focusing on behavioural patterns. It is difficult to track behaviour patterns for Twitter claims. Hence it tracks tweet patterns.
Senator Martin Heinrich on Threat to Elections
Sandberg says that Facebook is getting smarter at detecting and preventing threats to elections.
Dorsey follows by mentioning about Twitter working with AI tools to recognise patterns of behaviour that allow people to artificially amplify information.
Senator Susan Collins on why Twitter doesn't intimate individuals
“We are going to do our best to make sure that we catch everything via external partnership and other channels. We recognise we need to communicate more directly,” says Jack Dorsey, Twitter CEO.
He also added, “We are looking to incentivise people not only based on the number of followers they have but also the way they share content online. By what kind of content they share. We are also looking to expand our transparency report and extend the same to the public.”
How Can Facebook & Twitter Clean Their Systems?
“We have been investing heavily in identifying bad actors in the system. Most of our takedown have been on our own, but we have coordinated with external parties to make this successful.” says Sandberg.
Dorsey has his own response saying, “There are a number of short term risk involved but the only way we'll grow is by building the platform's health and we have strengthened our partnership with government agencies and law enforcement partners.”
The stock prices of Twitter and Facebook don’t seem to be holding up to the questioning and have been dropping since the hearing began.
Sandberg adds, “the most important determinant is what people choose to follow. If you don’t want to follow someone we encourage that. We are going to do a contribution to investing in technology to figure out a solution to battle deep fake news.”
Senator Lankford on Data of Suspended Accounts
Both Twitter and Facebook keep records of the suspended accounts for later analysis and also for referrals by law and enforcement bodies. Sandberg was also questioned on the number of fake accounts on Facebook.
Senator Manchin on Why Facebook & Twitter Don't Operate in China
Both Facebook and Twitter do not operate in China because the Chinese government hasn’t allowed both these platforms in the country. Sandberg and Dorsey are unanimous in their reply to the senator.
US Senator Cotton on Why Wikileaks is Active on Facebook and Twitter
WikiLeaks and Julian Asaange remain active on Facebook & Twitter. Sandberg says that these accounts don’t violate any of Facebook's terms. Twitter also says the same and clarifies that it is open to inviting law and enforcement to investigate if needed.
Google's absence has been repeatedly brought up throughout this hearing consistently and for sure it’s not very popular on Capitol Hill right now.
US Senate Vice Chairman Mark Warner Wraps It Up
Warner thanks both Dorsey and Sandberg for their presence and urges both to make their platforms better safer for users across the US. He also thanks them for taking down bad actors online and also help fighting against fake news.
US Senate Chairman Richard Burr also thanks both the individuals for being present and addressing the senators’ questions. Burr also thanks them for their contribution to battling bad actors and elements online specifically taking stringent steps against the Russian influence in the 2016 elections.