Zuckerberg, Dorsey and Pichai to Testify on Content Policies
October 16 2020 - 5:59PM
Dow Jones News
By Ryan Tracy
WASHINGTON -- The chief executives of Facebook Inc., Twitter
Inc. and Alphabet Inc. will appear before a Senate committee Oct.
28 to face questioning about their policies for moderating content
on their internet platforms.
Mark Zuckerberg of Facebook, Jack Dorsey of Twitter, and Sundar
Pichai of Alphabet, the owner of Google and YouTube, will appear
before the Senate Commerce Committee via videoconference, the
Republican-led committee said Friday.
The hearing will center on Section 230 of the Communications
Decency Act, which shields social-media platforms from liability
for user content -- but which Republicans say has been used by tech
companies to censor conservative opinions.
The companies say they make those decisions without regard to
political viewpoints. Democrats, for their part, have encouraged
the companies to be more proactive in policing false information on
social media.
The Senate Commerce Committee's announcement said the Oct. 28
hearing "will provide an opportunity to discuss the unintended
consequences of Section 230's liability shield and how best to
preserve the internet as a forum for open discourse."
The panel's chairman, Sen. Roger Wicker (R., Miss.), has pushed
for the hearing to occur on a short time line. He moved to
authorize the issuance of subpoenas against the three CEOs earlier
this month, less than a week after first asking them to appear. At
a hearing to vote on the subpoenas, he noted the fast-approaching
Nov. 3 election.
Democrats didn't oppose issuing the subpoenas, although some
said they didn't believe it was necessary to question the CEOs
before the election.
The Senate Commerce Committee hearing is separate from an Oct.
23 hearing planned by the Senate Judiciary Committee, which on
Thursday threatened to subpoena Mr. Dorsey to appear on that date
after Twitter blocked a pair of New York Post articles containing
allegations against Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden.
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
October 16, 2020 17:44 ET (21:44 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2020 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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