With the midterm elections two months away, Facebook (FB) Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg and Twitter (TWTR) Chief Executive Jack Dorsey will testify Wednesday on Capitol Hill on the topics of eliminating fake news and alleged political censorship.
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The two social media giants are under intense scrutiny, initially due to revelations that emerged from the Cambridge Analytica data-privacy scandal. The scandal revolves around fake news and Russian meddling in the 2016 elections.
Republicans and Democrats have expressed a willingness to regulate the two platforms. This comes as Facebook and Twitter cull their networks of fake accounts and ridding them of hate speech and harassment. Sandberg and Dorsey will face the Senate Intelligence Committee on the spread of misinformation and measures to prevent that.
The House Energy and Commerce Committee convenes their own hearing later that day. It will focus on Twitter, with Dorsey as the sole witness. Conservative leaders have alleged that Twitter's algorithm and content-moderation policies unfairly target right-leaning users and websites.
Biased Against Conservatives?
Twitter has removed millions of fake or suspicious accounts, including bots and trolls. Dorsey is expected to be asked about President Donald Trump's claims that its elimination of accounts is biased against conservatives.
One month ago, Facebook removed 32 profile accounts and pages from its network. It tried to thwart a recently discovered disinformation campaign that looks similar to Russia actors interfering in the 2016 U.S. presidential election. The accounts and pages sought to spread politically divisive content around social issues, Facebook said.
In November, officials from Facebook, Twitter and Google parent Alphabet (GOOGL) testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee. They discussed Russian efforts to spread disinformation during the 2016 campaign.
On Tuesday, Google posted what it called "testimony" for the upcoming congressional hearings on social media. Alphabet had been invited to the Senate hearing but its spokesperson was rejected. The committee decided that Google Chief Legal Officer Kent Walker was not high-level enough to testify. The Google blog post was authored by Walker, who said he would be in Washington Wednesday to provide briefings on its work on the topic.
Tthe chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, Ajit Pai, in a blog post on Tuesday called for Facebook, Google and Twitter to be more transparent in the techniques they use to identify and filter questionable content.
Shares of Facebook closed at 171.16, down 2.6%, on the stock market today. Twitter stock closed at 34.84, down 1%. Alphabet fell 1.7% to close at 1,211.31.
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The post Facebook, Twitter Executives To Face Congress On Fake News, Censorship appeared first on Investor's Business Daily.
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