Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey, who appeared before lawmakers on Capitol Hill for the first time on Wednesday, was grilled for hours about everything from social media’s role in foreign interference with U.S. elections to accusations that his company discriminates against conservatives.
Like Facebook Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg, who appeared beside him before the Senate Intelligence Committee, Dorsey promised that Twitter is doing everything it can to address lawmakers’ concerns. He later appeared alone before the House Energy and Commerce Committee.
Despite admitting that Facebook and Twitter were slow to act on foreign interference during the 2016 U.S. elections, both executives received kudos from many of the senators for what their companies have done to try to address the issue, including being more transparent about who’s paying for political ads on their platforms.
Sandberg and Dorsey also confirmed that the companies work together when it comes to sharing information on possible foreign-influence campaigns, although Sandberg said, “We could do more to formalize the process.”
Are these congressional hearings — not the first in Washington on these issues — doing any good?
“The social pressure applied on internet companies from these hearings is a pretty strong motivator,” said Eric Goldman, law professor for Santa Clara University. “It’s unclear what they’d do without the pressure.”
Dorsey’s testimony coincided with a Department of Justice announcement that Attorney General Jeff Sessions plans to meet with state attorneys general this month to discuss whether tech giants are “hurting competition and intentionally stifling the free exchange of ideas on their platforms.”
A spokesman for the DOJ would not comment on which state attorneys general Sessions plans to meet with Sept. 25.
Lawmakers on both committees brought up accusations of Twitter being biased against Republicans. Those who addressed it included Democrats.
“Over the past few weeks, President Trump and conservatives have peddled conspiracy theories,” said Rep. Frank Pallone, D-New Jersey. “I fear they’re exploiting this hearing for that purpose.”
“It’s a load of crap,” said Rep. Mike Doyle, D-Pennsylvania.
Republicans complained at the hearing about Twitter’s “shadow banning,” or downgrading of the visibility of certain accounts. It’s something President Donald Trump has also complained about.
Dorsey testified that the downgrading affected 600,000 accounts — they did not show up on the platform’s search dropdown — based on the activity of the accounts that follow them. He said Twitter later determined that using that signal was unfair, and that it corrected its mistake.
Rep. Joe Barton wasn’t willing to let that rest.
“How many Democrats were blocked from auto-searches?” he asked Dorsey. The Twitter CEO said he didn’t have that number and would get back to the committee.
Dorsey mentioned at both hearings that his mom and dad are Democrat and Republican, and repeated a few times that “impartiality is one of our guiding principles” at Twitter.
As for other issues facing Twitter, Dorsey also said the company is working on transparency reports pertaining to harassment and abuse on the platform.
Google did not have an executive testify Wednesday. The Senate Intelligence Committee rejected Google’s offer for its chief legal officer, Kent Walker, to appear before it because it wanted Alphabet CEO Larry Page to testify. Therefore, nobody representing Google was subjected to the same questions that Dorsey and Sandberg were, but senator after senator slammed Google for not sending anyone.
Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Arizona, suggested that perhaps Google didn’t want to answer questions about reports that it is working on a search engine in China, or that it “cooperates” with Chinese companies the United States finds suspicious.
“Perhaps they didn’t send a witness to answer these questions because there is no answer,” Cotton said.
When reached Wednesday, a Google spokesperson said Walker was in Washington on Wednesday anyway, and would be briefing members of Congress: “We had informed the Senate Intelligence Committee of this in late July and had understood that he would be an appropriate witness for this hearing.”
