A pair of House Energy and Commerce subcommittees will hold
a fully remote joint hearing including Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, Google CEO
Sundar Pichai and Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey as Congress considers whether to make
changes in legal protections for social media companies.
"Whether it be falsehoods about the COVID-19 vaccine or
debunked claims of election fraud, these online platforms have allowed
misinformation to spread, intensifying national crises with real-life, grim
consequences for public health and safety,” said Energy and Commerce Committee
Chairman Frank Pallone and Representatives Mike Doyle and Jan Schakowsky, the
chairs of the two subcommittees, in a joint statement.
They added "for far too long, big tech has failed to
acknowledge the role they've played in fomenting and elevating blatantly false
information to its online audiences. Industry self-regulation has failed."
This will be the seventh time Zuckerberg has testified
before Congress since 2018.
Facebook spokesman Andy Stone said the company looks
"forward to discussing the challenges online platforms face, what we're
doing about them and reiterate our belief that companies shouldn't be making
all of these decisions on our own."
A Twitter spokeswoman declined to comment but this will be
Dorsey's fifth appearance before Congress.
Some lawmakers think Congress should revoke or revise a 1996
liability shield for social media companies known as Section 230.
Separately, an Energy and Commerce subcommittee will hold a
hearing Wednesday on "the spread of disinformation and extremism by
traditional news media."
On Thursday, a House Judiciary Subcommittee on Antitrust
said it would hold a series of hearings starting next week, to consider
legislative proposals to address the "rise and abuse of market power
online and to modernise the antitrust laws" after it conducted a lengthy
investigation into Big Tech companies.
© Reuters
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