Facebook, Twitter pledge to better protect their platforms
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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.