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By Deepa Seetharaman, Dustin Volz and John D. McKinnon 

Even as top executives at Facebook and Twitter attempted to fend off questions from senators about election interference on their platforms, Attorney General Jeff Sessions said he plans to gather state attorneys general this month to examine what the Justice Department called the intentional "stifling" of voices on social media.

The department announced the plan as Facebook Inc. Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg and Twitter Inc. Chief Executive Jack Dorsey were wrapping up testimony Wednesday morning on efforts to deter foreign trolls and bots ahead of this year's midterm contests.

Mr. Dorsey later appeared alone in front of the House Commerce Committee, where he faced a barrage of questions about alleged anticonservative bias over how Twitter enforces its rules.

At both hearings, lawmakers quizzed tech executives about how their sites work, what they are doing to bolster their defenses against foreign disruption and what regulation the companies might consider. The questions sharpened the focus on the chasm between current U.S. regulations of global internet companies and the far-reaching capabilities the platforms boast in shaping American news diets and overall discourse.

At multiple points, Mr. Dorsey described Twitter's practice of waiting for users to flag issues before acting as a shortcoming. He said his company was working on algorithms to police abuse, which the company hadn't previously disclosed proactively.

There was no representative of Alphabet Inc.'s Google at Wednesday's Senate hearing . The company had been invited, but declined when the committee said its proposed representative wasn't sufficiently senior in rank. An empty chair next to Facebook's Ms. Sandberg and Twitter's Mr. Dorsey was adorned with a placard that simply said "Google."

Technology stocks tumbled across the board Wednesday as Ms. Sandberg and Mr. Dorsey testified, a selloff that hit not just social-media titans but also chip makers, software developers and online streaming services. Facebook fell 2.3% while Twitter sank 6.1%, and Google lost about 1%.

The day's actions produced a split-screen effect: As most Republicans and Democrats on the Senate Intelligence Committee zeroed in on whether the U.S. midterms are sufficiently safeguarded against Russian interference, the Trump administration and its allies in Congress doubled down on longstanding complaints that the platforms are allegedly biased against supporters of President Trump.

In its statement, Justice Department spokesman Devin O'Malley said the agency listened "closely" to the morning's testimony. He said Mr. Sessions has convened a meeting on Sept. 25 with state attorneys general "to discuss a growing concern that these companies may be hurting competition and intentionally stifling the free exchange of ideas on their platforms."

In the Senate hearing, both tech executives expressed contrition for allowing their platforms to be abused in the past while pledging to make protecting their systems during the 2018 midterm elections a priority.

Ms. Sandberg said Facebook has made changes to its platform to make political ads more transparent and suppress demonstrably false news. For his part, Mr. Dorsey said Twitter was important to public discourse as well as the company's commitment to investigating what type of behavior the platform incentivizes.

The topic of anticonservative bias wasn't a major focus during the roughly three hours of testimony in the Senate.

The hearings were occasionally interrupted by the presence of far-right agitators. Alex Jones, the founder of conspiracy site Infowars, attended the Senate hearing and occasionally filmed the proceedings, seated behind reporters covering the event. Accounts operated by Mr. Jones have been briefly suspended by many tech companies, including Twitter and Facebook.

By the afternoon session in the House Commerce Committee, allegations of anticonservative bias had taken on a more prominent role. Many of the Republicans' questions focused on search restrictions implemented by Twitter that made it harder for a time for users to access accounts of Reps. Jim Jordan (R., Ohio), Mark Meadows (R., N.C.) and Matt Gaetz (R., Fla.), among other prominent Republicans.

"Can you at least see that is a concern a lot of us have?" Rep. Steve Scalise (R., La.) asked.

Mr. Dorsey replied, "I assure you the algorithm was not written with that in mind."

The problems resulted from adjustments Twitter made to its search function aimed at fighting inflammatory, troll-like behaviors on its platform. Twitter says it quickly fixed the problem.

Some lawmakers saw the Justice Department statement as an effort to distract attention from the conversation about Russian election interference. In a statement, Sen. Mark Warner (D., Va.) said he agreed that there are "very serious issues related to competition in the digital economy that are worth taking a look at." But, he added, he had "serious concerns" that the Justice Department was relying on the "debunked idea that platforms censor conservative perspectives."

Rep. John Sarbanes (D., Md.) said he was worried that Wednesday's House Commerce hearing itself was part of a campaign by Republicans "to work the refs" ahead of the November midterm elections and "force an overcorrection" by social-media companies.

A Justice Department spokesman said alleged stifling of viewpoints has been a longstanding concern of Mr. Sessions and the meeting had been in the works before Wednesday morning's hearing. He declined to say how many states would attend the meeting or which were invited.

In an interview published Wednesday morning with the Daily Caller, Mr. Trump accused social-media companies of interfering in elections in favor of Democrats. "The truth is they were all on Hillary Clinton's side," he said.

Democrats and some former government officials have accused Mr. Trump, a Republican, of not taking the threat of election security seriously enough, due in part to a belief that raising the issue undermines his 2016 victory. Mr. Trump has repeatedly been dismissive of the Russian threat and at times indicated he trusts Russian President Vladimir Putin's denials about election hacking more than the unanimous assessments of his own U.S. intelligence community.

Other parts of the Trump administration have dedicated increased attention and resources to trying to protect the 2018 midterms from foreign interference.

Speaking across town on Wednesday, Gen. Paul Nakasone, the chief of U.S. Cyber Command and the National Security Agency, said there was "nothing more important" at his agencies than the security of the midterm elections.

April Doss, who served as senior counsel for Senate committee's Russia investigation until earlier this year, said the Justice Department statement was "puzzling."

"The hearing's focus was very clearly foreign influence operations and how it can be manipulated by people who have malign intent," said Ms. Doss, a partner at the law firm Saul Ewing and a former National Security Agency lawyer. "The DOJ statement did not appear to be about that."

--Sadie Gurman contributed to this article.

Write to Deepa Seetharaman at Deepa.Seetharaman@wsj.com and John D. McKinnon at john.mckinnon@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

September 05, 2018 22:18 ET (02:18 GMT)

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