Senate Panel to Subpoena Top Social-Media CEOs--2nd Update
October 01 2020 - 11:50AM
Dow Jones News
By Ryan Tracy
WASHINGTON--The Senate Commerce Committee voted to authorize
subpoenas forcing testimony from Facebook Inc. CEO Mark Zuckerbeg,
Twitter Inc. CEO Jack Dorsey, and Sundar Pichai, CEO of Alphabet
Inc. and its subsidiary Google, setting up what could be a
contentious hearing with the largest U.S. social-media companies in
the midst of a national election.
In taking the unusual step of forcing the executives to testify
Thursday, Senators cited the need to review Section 230, a legal
provision that grants the companies legal immunity in managing
content on their sites, as well as privacy and other issues.
Sen. Roger Wicker (R., Miss.), the committee's chairman, also
invoked the Nov. 3 election. "On the eve of a momentous and highly
charged election, it is imperative that this committee of
jurisdiction and the American people receive a full accounting from
the heads of these companies about their content moderation
practices," he said Thursday.
Motions to authorize the subpoenas were adopted by voice voice,
without opposition from any of the panel's 26 members, both
Republicans and Democrats. After the votes, the lawmakers debated
whether the hearing should be held before or after the Nov. 3
election. Some Democrats said it ought to be scheduled afterward,
but GOP lawmakers who control the committee appeared ready to move
forward quickly.
Sen. Maria Cantwell (D., Wash.), the committee's top Democrat,
had initially objected to the subpoenas, but said she agreed to
support them after Mr. Wicker expanded their scope to include
privacy issues.
She said she shared Republicans' desire to question the CEOs,
but didn't want the hearing to be used to pressure the companies to
stop taking down false information.
"What I don't want to see is a chilling effect on individuals
who are in a process of trying to crack down on hate speech and
misinformation about Covid during a pandemic," she said.
Representatives of the companies had no immediate comment.
The committee first asked the CEOs to testify on Sept. 18,
according to people familiar with the matter. Six days later, Mr.
Wicker announced he would move to subpoena testimony -- a fast
timeline by congressional standards. On Thursday he said the
subpoenas were necessary because the CEOs had "declined to
participate."
A committee spokeswoman said the panel will contact the
companies again to schedule a hearing and would issue the subpoenas
if the witnesses don't appear in a timely manner.
"It should speak volumes that every member of this committee
just voted to issue subpoenas," said Sen. Ted Cruz (R., Tex.) "Big
tech are the robber barons of the 21st Century."
Mr. Cruz also repeated Republican concerns that social media
companies censor conservative content, a claim the companies
deny.
Sen. Brian Schatz (D., Hawaii), said he worried Republicans
would use the hearing to push the companies to stop taking down
false or misleading content. "This feels like an attempt to work
the refs five weeks out from the election," he said.
No date for a hearing with the CEOs has been announced.
All three CEOs have previously testified before Congress. In
July, Messrs. Pichai and Zuckerberg joined Amazon.com Inc. CEO Jeff
Bezos and Apple Inc. CEO Tim Cook for five hours of adversarial
questioning by a House antitrust subcommittee.
While that hearing focused on tech companies' market power, the
Senate panel's agenda appeared more focused on social-media
content. With the three companies present, senators would be
questioning executives in charge of most of the largest U.S. social
media platforms: Twitter, Google's YouTube, and Facebook, which
owns its eponymous platform as well as Instagram and WhatsApp.
Write to Ryan Tracy at ryan.tracy@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
October 01, 2020 11:35 ET (15:35 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2020 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL)
Historical Stock Chart
From Sep 2024 to Oct 2024
Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL)
Historical Stock Chart
From Oct 2023 to Oct 2024