Zuckerberg, Dorsey Face Harsh Questioning

Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg and Twitter’s Jack Dorsey returned virtually to Capitol Hill Tuesday for another round of questioning that did more to highlight the gulf between Republicans and Democrats on proper content moderation than reveal any new information, reports The Hill. 

Lawmakers asked the tech CEOs about moderation, transparency, antitrust issues and what would happen to President Trump's accounts after his term in office draws to a close.

Mark Zuckerberg

Republicans spent the bulk of the hearing raising concerns about anti-conservative bias by tech platforms, an oft-repeated allegation that has not been substantiated. 

In one instance, Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) said that Twitter’s temporary suspension of Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Mark Morgan over a tweet about the U.S.-Mexico border wall was an example of social media platforms "taking a very distinctively partisan approach and not a neutral one to election-related content moderation."

"What we're going to see today is that mistakes happen a whole lot more, almost entirely, on one side of the political aisle rather than the other," Lee said.

Democrats went the other direction, suggesting that Facebook and Twitter have not gone far enough in regulating misinformation and hate speech.

Jack Dorsey

Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) used the example of former White House strategist Stephen Bannon to call out Facebook’s seemingly inconsistent policies. Bannon was banned from Twitter last week after calling of the beheading of National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Director Anthony Fauci and FBI Director Christopher Wray in a video; Facebook simply took the video down.

"How many times is Steve Bannon allowed to call for the murder of public officials before Facebook suspends his account?" Blumenthal asked.

Zuckerberg defended Bannon being allowed on the platform, stressing that an account holder would have to commit “multiple offenses like that” before receiving a ban.

The hearing was the first featuring the tech executives following the general election, for which both platforms took unprecedented steps to control the spread of misinformation.