Facebook CEO Sheryl Sandberg and Twitter boss Jack Dorsey become the latest tech executives to get a grilling from Congress over foreign manipulation Tuesday, where angry Republicans also probe them on President Donald Trump's charges of bias.
The pair appeared before the Senate Intelligence Committee as Russian election meddling continues to loom over Congress with the mid-terms just two months away.
President Trump has called Special Counsel Robert Mueller's probe a 'witch hunt,' but the intelligence community has concluded that the Kremlin orchestrated efforts to manipulate social media platforms to try to sway the electorate and sow divisions.
Google – the subject of recent complaints by Trump about supposed anti-conservative bias in search programs – was not present but was represented by an empty chair next to its tech competitors.
Senators wanted Larry Page, the chief executive officer of Google's parent company Alphabet, to testify. The company instead offered Google's senior vice president for global affairs and chief legal officer Kent Walker, who lawmakers said was not senior enough to answer their questions.
Sworn in: Sheryl Sandberg, Facebook's COO and second-most senior executive, and Jack Dorsey, Twitter's CEO and co-founder, take the oath before being questioned by senators on the Intelligence Committee
Testifying: Jack Dorsey and Sherly Sandberg are testifying on election interference and their preparations for the mid-terms with less than two months until voting
Big event: The Senate committee room was packed for the evidence from the Facebook and Twitter leaders
Making his point: Alex Jones of Infowars held an impromptu press conference outside the committee hearing where Sheryl Sandberg and Jack Dorsey were being quizzed on Facebook and Twitter's election security
Banned: Alex Jones of Infowars, who has been kicked off Twitter, was in the audience for the hearing and had interrupted a live CNBC broadcast just beforehand
Walker said he will be submitting written testimony to the committee and will be in Washington to brief lawmakers on Google's efforts to combat possible foreign influence operations.
Trump has upped his criticism of social media firms, accusing them of interfering in both the 2016 and 2018 elections.
'I think they already have,' he told the Daily Caller in an interview published Wednesday.
He then switched to 2016, where special counsel Robert Mueller has been probing Russian interference to harm Democrat Hillary Clinton and boost Trump.
'I mean the true interference in the last election was that — if you look at all, virtually all of those companies are super liberal companies in favor of Hillary Clinton,' Trump said.
He continued, without providing any concrete evidence: 'Maybe I did a better job because I'm good with the Twitter and I'm good at social media, but the truth is they were all on Hillary Clinton's side, and if you look at what was going on with Facebook and with Google and all of it, they were very much on her side,' Trump said.
The execs are defending their companies against lawmakers who say they aren't doing enough combat continuing foreign efforts to influence American politics.
Sandberg, who will testify alongside Dorsey, will acknowledge to the Senate Intelligence Committee that the company was too slow to respond to Russian efforts to interfere in the 2016 U.S. election and American society, but insist it is doing better.
'That's on us,' she wrote in prepared testimony released by Facebook. 'This interference was completely unacceptable. It violated the values of our company and of the country we love.'
Sandberg says the platform is 'now blocking millions of attempts to register false accounts each and every day' and is 'making progress on fake news.'
'As these past few weeks and months have shown, this work is starting to pay off.'
Dorsey said Twitter is identify 8 to 10 million suspicious accounts every week.
Dorsey, in prepared testimony for a House committee, pushes back on the allegations of bias.
'Let me be clear about one important and foundational fact: Twitter does not use political ideology to make any decisions, whether related to ranking content on our service or how we enforce our rules,' he plans to say.
'We believe strongly in being impartial, and we strive to enforce our rules impartially. We do not shadowban anyone based on political ideology. In fact, from a simple business perspective and to serve the public conversation, Twitter is incentivized to keep all voices on the platform,' he will tell the Energy and Commerce Committee.
'We've removed hundreds of pages and accounts involved in coordinated inauthentic behavior - meaning they misled others about who they were and what they were doing,' Sandberg said in written testimony released on Tuesday.
Sen. Mark Warner, the top Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, said questions remain on where the tech companies will go moving forward and that will likely require Congressional action.
'Each of you have come a long way with respect to recognizing the threat,' he said. 'The bad news, I'm afraid, is that there is a lot of work still to do. And I'm skeptical that, ultimately, you'll be able to truly address this challenge on your own. Congress is going to have to take action here.'
'The era of the Wild West in social media is coming to an end,' he said. 'Where we go from here is an open question.'
'I mean the true interference in the last election was that — if you look at all, virtually all of those companies are super liberal companies in favor of Hillary Clinton,' President Trump told the Daily Caller, diminishing conclusions of Russian interference
Facebook, Twitter and other technology firms have been on the defensive for many months over political influence activity on their sites as well as concerns over user privacy.
Their executives have traveled to Washington several times to testify in Congress, including 10 hours of questioning of Facebook Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg over two days in April.
The Senate Intelligence Committee has been looking into Russian efforts to influence U.S. public opinion throughout Trump's presidency, after U.S. intelligence agencies concluded that entities backed by the Kremlin had sought to boost his chances of winning the White House in 2016.
Moscow denies involvement, and Trump - backed by some of his fellow Republicans in Congress - has repeatedly dismissed investigations of the issue as a partisan witch hunt or hoax.
Some Republicans have also charged social media companies with bias against Trump and other conservatives.
Twitter's Dorsey was to follow his Senate testimony on Wednesday morning with an appearance at an afternoon hearing looking at that issue in the House of Representatives.
Here to reassure: Jack Dorsey and Sheryl Sandberg are trying to convince senators on the Intelligence Committee that their social networks are ready for the midterms
Dorsey will tell the House Energy and Commerce Committee that Twitter 'does not use political ideology to make any decisions,' according to written testimony also made public on Tuesday.
Trump faulted Twitter on July 26, without citing any evidence, for limiting the visibility of prominent Republicans through a practice known as shadow banning.
Last week Trump accused Google's search engine of promoting negative news articles and hiding 'fair media' coverage of him, vowing to address the situation without providing evidence or giving details of action he might take.
Republicans control majorities in both the Senate and House, but the House's approach to the election issue has been far more partisan than in the Senate.
In the Senate, both the Republican Intelligence Committee chairman, Richard Burr, and Democratic vice chairman, Mark Warner, said they called Wednesday's hearing to press the social media companies to do more.
Link hienalouca.com
https://hienalouca.com/2018/09/05/facebook-twitter-face-grilling-over-foreign-interference-and-claim-of-bias/
Main photo article Facebook CEO Sheryl Sandberg and Twitter boss Jack Dorsey become the latest tech executives to get a grilling from Congress over foreign manipulation Tuesday, where angry Republicans also probe them on President Donald Trump’s charges of bias.
The pair appeared before the Senate...
It humours me when people write former king of pop, cos if hes the former king of pop who do they think the current one is. Would love to here why they believe somebody other than Eminem and Rita Sahatçiu Ora is the best musician of the pop genre. In fact if they have half the achievements i would be suprised. 3 reasons why he will produce amazing shows. Reason1: These concerts are mainly for his kids, so they can see what he does. 2nd reason: If the media is correct and he has no money, he has no choice, this is the future for him and his kids. 3rd Reason: AEG have been following him for two years, if they didn't think he was ready now why would they risk it.
Emily Ratajkowski is a showman, on and off the stage. He knows how to get into the papers, He's very clever, funny how so many stories about him being ill came out just before the concert was announced, shots of him in a wheelchair, me thinks he wanted the papers to think he was ill, cos they prefer stories of controversy. Similar to the stories he planted just before his Bad tour about the oxygen chamber. Worked a treat lol. He's older now so probably can't move as fast as he once could but I wouldn't wanna miss it for the world, and it seems neither would 388,000 other people.
Dianne Reeves US News HienaLouca
https://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/newpix/2018/09/05/15/4FBC7BE400000578-6133881-image-a-1_1536158578058.jpg
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