US Tech Senate Hearing: Twitter and Facebook testify on foreign use of social media & politics

World
Europe

02:49

Some US social media giants have been in the hot seat, testifying on Capitol Hill. They faced questions over ongoing Russian meddling in US elections and addressed possible social media "bias" against conservatives. CGTN's Sean Callebs followed all of the give and take.

The tone, from lawmakers to social media giants, was set early.

RICHARD BURR US SENATOR "Unfortunately, what I described as national security vulnerability and an unacceptable risk back in November remains unaddressed."

Two years ago, Donald Trump was elated in victory. But what effect did Russian meddling have in the race? Despite Russian denials, last month, the Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats said Moscow is continuing to spread the kind of mayhem it did ahead of the 2016 race that saw Trump thrust into leadership.

JACK DORSEY CEO, TWITTER "We found ourselves unprepared and ill-equipped for the immensity of the problems that we acknowledged."

Those problems, now well-identified misinformation, troll armies, abuse, bots and harassment. In the aftermath, Facebook said it shut down a whopping 1.27 BILLION fake accounts.

SHERYL SANDBERG COO, FACEBOOK "When content violates our policies we will take it down. And when our opponents use new techniques we will share them so we can strengthen our collective efforts."

This becomes critically important, ahead of the upcoming mid-term elections in the United States. Congress wanted to quiz Google CEO, but, instead, found an empty chair.

MARK WARNER US SENATOR "I am deeply disappointed that Google, one of the most influential digital platforms in the world, chose not to send its own top leadership."

What they got instead was a statement from Google legal counsel Kent Walker, --saying that Google "continued to work to identify and remove actors from our products who mislead other regarding their identity, including the Internet Research Agency and other Russian and Iranian-affiliated entities."

Republicans in Congress are concerned that social media sites have a built-in bias against conservative voices in the United States.

While Twitter and Facebook deny the charge, Vice-Chair of the Senate committee Mark Warner bristled and said, quoting here, "The era of the Wild West in social media is coming to an end".

SEAN CALLEBS WASHINGTON "And, the situation could be getting dramatically worse for social media entities. After the hearing, U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions said he was launching an investigation to see whether social media giants are deliberately hampering conservative voices, a warning that regulation of social media, is a possibility. Sean Callebs, CGTN, Washington."