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The heads of technical giants Facebook, Twitter and Google opposed grilling in Congress on Thursday while lawmakers tried to lure them into recognizing the roles of their companies in promoting our released January at the U.S. Capitol and raised misinformation about the COVID-19 vaccine.
In a hearing with the House Energy and Commerce Committee, lawyers arrested Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg; Sundar Pichai, CEO of Google, which owns YouTube; and Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey over their content policies, consumer data usage and children’s media usage.
Republicans have raised long-standing, unsubstantiated conservative complaints that the platforms are biased against conservative views and censor materials based on political or religious views.
There is more support in Congress for reinstating legislation in Big Tech companies.
“The time for devolution is over. It’s time to legislate to hold you to account, ”said Dr. Frank Pallone, DN.J., chairman of the committee.
That legislative move, as well as the social environment of political polarization, hate speech and violence against ethnic minorities, was reflected in the insensitivity of panel members when they questioned the three officials. A number of lawyers wanted yes or no answers and cut off the activists again.
“We always feel a little bit of responsibility,” Pichai said. Zuckerberg has used the word “nuanced” several times to make sure things can’t go downhill. “Any system can make mistakes” in changing harmful substances, he said.
Shortly after the hearing began, it emerged that most lawmakers had made up their minds that the big tech companies needed to be more tightly regulated in order to make an impact. on what people read and watch online.
In a round of questioning that was both a political theater and a public outcry, lawmakers called out the leaders to create platforms that would allow the leaking of misinformation about last year’s U.S. presidential election and the standard COVID-19 vaccine, all in relentless pursuit. of profit and higher stock prices.
Lawyers also blamed the companies’ services for poisoning children’s minds and inciting the Capitol’s deadly uprising, as well as contributing to the latest massacres in Atlanta and Boulder, Colorado.
The three CEOs strongly defended their companies’ efforts to post and distribute the increasingly toxic content on services used by billions of people, noting their efforts to balance freedom of speech.
“I don’t think we should be arbitrators of truth and I don’t think the government should be bigger,” Dorsey said.
Democrats blame social media platforms for spreading misinformation about the November election and the “Stop the Steal” vote fraud claims promoted by former President Donald Trump, and who made a deadly attack on the Capitol. Representative Mike Doyle, a Democrat from Pennsylvania, told CEOs that the unrest began “and was fed up on your platforms.”
Rep. Mike Doyle (D-PA) asks Technical executives who are responsible to their platforms for leaking misinformation that led to the Capitol revolution.
Jack Dorsey on Twitter is the only CEO who says “yes.” pic.twitter.com/XdOhLfYRtK
– The Repeat (@therecount) March 25, 2021
Support is being raised for Congress to issue new invitations for legal protection of language posted on their platforms. Both Republicans and Democrats – including President Joe Biden as a candidate – have called for some of the protections under Section 230 of a 25-year telecoms law to remove internet companies from liability for what users post.
The technical Heads defended the legal shield under Section 230, saying it has helped make the internet the forum it feels free today. Zuckerberg, however, again urged lawyers to update that law to make sure it works as expected. He said a specific recommendation: Congress could ask internet platforms to get legal protection just by verifying that their systems for identifying illegal content are up to snuff.
Trump enjoyed special treatment on Facebook and Twitter until January, despite leaking false information, pushing false claims about a poll, and spreading hatred. Facebook banned Trump indefinitely a day after Trump-led protesters swarmed the Capitol. Twitter soon followed, permanently removing Trump’s popular bull.
Facebook has not yet decided whether to oust the former president permanently. The company criticized that decision to its semi-independent Board of Inquiry – a sort of Facebook enforcement Supreme Court – which is expected to rule on the case next month.
Researchers say there is no evidence that social media giants are biased against backup news, posts or other material, or that they want one side of a political debate over another.
Democrats, at the same time, are deeply focused on hate speech and incitement that can spawn violence in the world. An external report released this week found that Facebook has allowed organizations – many linked to QAnon, boogaloo and militia movements – to unleash violence during the 2020 election and in the the weeks before the deadly riot on the Capitol.
With the tone and tenor of Thursday’s audition set early in the audition, there seemed to be a lot of interest from many internet and Twitter users in Dorsey’s new yellow cutting and trimming bread. His modern look immediately caught his attention as he was very different from his beard to draw compared to Rasputin in isolated events last year before Congress.
Another point of curiosity: a secret clock in Dorsey’s kitchen that displayed sets of figures that appeared to be randomly changing in a way that made it clear that it had nothing to do with the time of day. The tech blog Gizmodo recently revealed that the tool was a “BlockClock” showing the latest prices of cryptocurrencies like bitcoin and ethereum.
(AP)