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| Image Source: Google |
Facebook and Twitter executive pledged on Wednesday that thay are better working to social media platforms in the 2018 midterm election and beyond, and told congress of better efforts to root out foreign intrusions aimed at showing division in American Democracy.
Facebook’s No. 2 executive Sheryl Sandberg and Twitter’s CEO Jack Dorsey, testified before the senate intelligence committee in the morning but there was empty chair for Google parent company, which refused to send its top executive.
In the afternoon, Twitter’s CEO Jack Dorsey went before a House panel alone to address Republican concerns that Twitter is censoring conservatives. Dorsey denied that is happening.
The hearing come at a critical time, just 2 months before the midterm elections and as a president Donald Trump has charged that Twitter is biased against Republican views.
Senators had sharp words for Alphabet CEO Larry Page, Sen Marco Rubio, R-Fla suggested the company might have no show because it was “arrogant”. Susan Collins, R-Maine expressed outrage over the absence.
Ms. Sandberg appearance came several months after Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg tested highly publicized Capitol Hill hearings. Like, Zuckerberg she acknowledge Facebook lag in recognizing Russian efforts to manipulate Facebook during and after the 2016 US presidential election. Sandberg detailed Facebook’s efforts to fight the problem with new manpower and technology.
Mr. Jack Dorsey was candid with both committees about what his company needs to improve while defending Twitter against allegations of bias.
Holding his phone at the hearings Mr. Dorsey tweeted some of his opening statement: We aren’t proud of how that free and open exchanged has been weaponized and used to distract and divide people and our nation. We found ourselves unprepared and ill-quipped for the immensity of the problems we have acknowledged, Mr. Dorsey wrote also.
He added: Abuse, harassment troll armies, propaganda through human coordination, Mis-information campaigns, and divisive filter bubbles that not healthy Public Square. While, a relatively small numbers of bad faith actors were able to game twitter to have an outsized impact.
Both platform Facebook and Twitter are using increasingly technology and artificial intelligence to combat the misuse. But their approaches are different because their platforms are also different, as their resources where Twitter is far behind.
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