Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg (Mark Zuckerberg), Google CEO Sundar Pichai (Sundar Pichai) and Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey (Jack Dorsey) agreed to hold on October 28 Go to Congress to testify and accept inquiries regarding their policy on reviewing content on their Internet platforms.
It is reported that the Commerce Committee under the U.S. Senate led by the Republican Party has previously voted unanimously to summon these three executives to court, but they agreed to appear in court without being summoned. The hearing will be called “Whether the comprehensive immunity of Article 230 will lead to bad behavior of large technology companies”, which is related to the consideration of amendments to Article 230 of the Communications Decency Act of 1996 , The bill is considered the most important law to protect online speech.
Pictured: Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg testified before members of the House of Representatives Judicial Antitrust Subcommittee via video in July
Section 230 protects social media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter, as well as Internet providers such as Verizon and Comcast, so that they don’t have to be sued for users’ posts on their services. But Republicans believe that this clause is used by technology companies to review conservative views. These companies stated that they did not consider political views when making these decisions. Democrats encourage these companies to be more proactive in monitoring false information on social media.
The three CEOs will take questions about their company’s content moderation practices, how their platforms affect local news and consumer privacy, and “how best to keep the Internet as a forum for public speech.” The hearing will be broadcast live to the public.
The chairman of the Senate Commerce Committee and Republican Senator Roger Wicker of Mississippi has been pushing for hearings to be held within a short period of time. Earlier this month, less than a week after the first request for the three CEOs to appear in court, he authorized the issue of subpoenas against the three CEOs. Democrats are not opposed to the issuance of subpoenas, although some people say they don’t think it is necessary to ask the chief executives before the election.
Prior to this, Twitter began tagging President Donald Trump’s tweets in May, calling them “potentially misleading.” This situation peaked after Trump signed an executive order against social media platforms such as Twitter and Facebook. The order led the Ministry of Justice to announce last week a proposal to amend Section 230 to remove the protection of online platforms.
Twitter confirmed on its official account: “Dorsey voluntarily agreed to testify before the Senate Commerce Committee on October 28, even though it was less than a week before the US presidential election. We have already committed a reactionary and politicized attempt to erode Article 230. It shows our point of view, which threatens the future of online speech and Internet freedom. Reasonable and productive debate is essential.”
Facebook also confirmed that Zuckerberg will appear in court in person, but declined to comment. Google did not immediately respond to reporters’ request for comment. In July of this year, Zuckerberg and Pichai, along with Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos (Jeff Bezos) and Apple CEO Tim Cook (Tim Cook), passed the House Antitrust Subcommittee. Video testimony.
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