By John D. McKinnon and Ryan Tracy
WASHINGTON -- CEOs of two big social-media platforms hope to
show senators Tuesday that their companies performed better in the
2020 elections compared with 2016, but they are likely to face
hostile questions anyway.
At a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing, Facebook Inc.'s Mark
Zuckerberg and Twitter Inc.'s Jack Dorsey are expected to tout
improvements their companies made in blocking or reducing
misleading information in the 2020 election. That led to less
interference, the CEOs are likely to say. By contrast, the 2016
election was marred by meddling from Russia and other
countries.
Lawmakers still are likely to renew concerns from other recent
hearings, where they have complained about the platforms' power and
reach, as well as how they are handling specific election-related
content.
Republicans were expected to say that the platforms continue to
censor conservative speech, a charge that the platforms -- and
Democrats -- generally reject. Democrats were likely to raise their
own partisan concerns, including worries that some of the
platforms' current content restrictions could interfere with their
ability to get their message out in the run-up to a crucial Georgia
runoff election in January that likely will decide control of the
Senate.
The hearing also could point the way to action on tech issues in
the next Congress.
"Despite today's political charade, we have a historic
opportunity for an ambitious and bipartisan agenda in the next
Congress," Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D., Conn.) was expected to tell
the CEOs in his opening statement. While praising what he terms
"baby steps" by the platforms toward controlling misinformation and
other ills, he adds, "You must do much more...You need to meet this
moment and put your power and money on the right side of
history."
Mr. Zuckerberg is expected to tout the success of Facebook's
extensive efforts to combat misinformation and voter suppression,
the company said. Mr. Zuckerberg was likely to note that the
company partnered with election officials to remove false claims
about polling information, and displayed warnings on more than 150
million pieces of content after review by third-party fact
checkers.
The company also attached informational labels to content that
sought to undermine the legitimacy of the election, Mr. Zuckerberg
was likely to say.
Mr. Dorsey was expected to tell senators that Twitter's new
policies for labeling or removing false and misleading information
marked a big step forward, even though those measures drew
complaints from President Trump after some of his own tweets were
hit with labels. Mr. Trump's labeled tweets addressed mail-in
voting, violent protests and the coronavirus.
Mr. Dorsey also was expected to note that about 300,000 tweets
have been labeled for content that was disputed and potentially
misleading.
"We want to be very clear that we do not see our job in this
space as done," Mr. Dorsey was expected to say, according to
excerpts of his testimony. "Our work here continues and our teams
are learning and improving how we address these challenges and earn
the trust of the people who use Twitter."
Both men also are expected to signal cautious support for
measures to modify some of the legal protections that social-media
platforms currently enjoy under a federal law dating from the
mid-1990s. The law, known as Section 230 of the Communications
Decency Act, conveyed near-complete legal immunity to the platforms
for the acts of their users, and broad powers to police their
content.
In the wake of growing dissatisfaction with big platforms,
lawmakers in both parties have begun considering changes to Section
230.
As in prior hearings, Republicans are likely to focus on
Twitter, while Democrats are expected to be tough on Facebook.
Republican Chairman Lindsey Graham (R., S.C.) announced the
hearing before the election to "focus on the platforms' censorship
and suppression" of articles in the New York Post that raised
allegations against President-elect Joe Biden, which the Biden camp
denied. Twitter initially blocked tweets of the articles, including
from the Post.
Twitter later said it would allow posts about the disputed Post
articles, which the Post said were based on documents obtained from
the laptop of Hunter Biden, Mr. Biden's son, and concerned
international business dealings, including in China. The Biden
campaign has disputed the allegations.
The hearing also will "provide a valuable opportunity to review
the companies' handling of the 2020 election," Mr. Graham's
announcement said.
Democrats appear more likely to focus on the impact of decisions
by Facebook and Alphabet Inc.'s Google unit to continue banning
political ads on their platforms for several more weeks to diminish
confusion about election results, The Wall Street Journal has
reported.
The Jan. 5 runoff election in Georgia will decide two Senate
seats and will likely determine which party controls the chamber
after Mr. Biden is sworn in.
In one runoff, Republican Sen. David Perdue is facing Democrat
Jon Ossoff, a documentary filmmaker. In the other, Democrat Raphael
Warnock, pastor of Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, is
challenging Republican Sen. Kelly Loeffler.
Democrats are expected to bring up other concerns. Sen. Chris
Coons (D., Del.), a member of the judiciary panel, wrote a letter
to Mr. Zuckerberg Monday accusing Facebook of not doing enough to
protect Muslims, citing a Facebook-commissioned civil rights audit
that reported in July some Muslims feel "under siege" because of
popular content demonizing them. Facebook has noted that the audit
described progress as well as shortcomings.
Write to John D. McKinnon at john.mckinnon@wsj.com and Ryan
Tracy at ryan.tracy@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
November 17, 2020 09:02 ET (14:02 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2020 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META)
Historical Stock Chart
From Apr 2024 to May 2024
Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META)
Historical Stock Chart
From May 2023 to May 2024