Doyle tangles with Big Tech CEOs at hearing
WASHINGTON — U.S. House lawmakers trained bipartisan anger at the CEOs of Facebook, Twitter and Google on Thursday for allowing the spread of disinformation and harmful content on their social media platforms, providing the strongest statements yet that Congress intends to strengthen a key internet liability law to hold tech companies accountable.
Rep. Mike Doyle, D- Forest Hills, who led off the lengthy hearing, told the panel that the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol was “started and was nourished on your platforms,” despite Silicon Valley’s claims of reforms, and told the country’s most influential social media platforms that lawmakers would “legislate to stop this — the stakes are simply too high.”
“You have the means, but time after time, you are picking engagement and profit over the health and safety of your users, our nation and our democracy,” Mr. Doyle said at the start of a nearly six-hour hearing before the House Energy and Commerce Committee. “The power of this technology is awesome — and terrifying,” Mr. Doyle added. “And each of you has failed to your users and the world from the worst consequences of your creations.” The committee’s hearing, the first with social media CEOs since a mob stormed the legislative chambers two months ago, parsed the root causes of disinformation on the internet while waves of dangerous content, Mr. Doyle said, continue to spread. panel’s Mr. Doyle, subcommittee who chairs on communications the and technology, has called for lawmakers to strengthen Section 230 of the 1996
Communications Decency Act, which shields social media companies from lawsuits for user- generated content.
Section 230 provides broad legal immunity to publishers of user- generated content while also encouraging those publishers to moderate discussions and develop systems to flag inappropriate or illegal activity. The law has been widely credited with allowing the internet to thrive, and Mr. Doyle and other critics have no plans to repeal it entirely.
Still, scrutiny of that law has grown from both parties — albeit for different reasons — as public distrust of social media has grown in recent years.
During the COVID- 19 pandemic, tech platforms have come to rule everyday American society amid an increased reliance on online shopping, the proliferation of virtual meetings and the use of social media as a way to connect. ( The hearing itself, called “Disinformation Nation: Social Media’s Role in Promoting Extremism and Misinformation,” was held virtually, with all members and the CEOs appearing via Cisco Webex.)
Republicans have taken aim at Section 230 on behalf of former President Donald Trump, who was banished from major social media platforms after a mob of his supporters stormed the Capitol, urged on by Mr. Trump’s claims of unproven election fraud. Twitter had flagged Mr. Trump’s tweets about his loss in the 2020 presidential election for months before barring him permanently in January.
In December, Mr. Trump vetoed the annual defense bill, in part because lawmakers refused to repeal Section 230. Both chambers of Congress voted to over-ride his veto .
“You censor political view points you disagree with ,” Rep. Cathy McMor-ris Rodgers, R-Wash ., the top Republican on the full committee, said Thursday .“You fail to promote the bat-tle of ideas and free speech .”
Additionally, Ms. Rodgers said social media platforms can have a nega-tive influence on young peo-ple, from the threat of on-line predators to causing de-pression and suicide among children and teenagers. She echoed other Republicans who expressed frustration that tech platforms were targeting children under 13 even as they failed to stem bullying, sexual harass-ment, drug sales and other illegal online content .
“Remember, our kids—the users—are the prod-uct ,” Ms. Rodgers said .“You, Big Tech, are not ad-vocates for children. You exploit and profit off of them.
”It remains to be seen whether Congress can translate bi partisan anger at another high-profile hearing into action. Law-makers would have to tackle thorny legal issues, including free speech and telecommunications policy that touches every Ameri-can with a screen, on top of issues surrounding the COVID-19 pandemic and a looming $3 trillion infra-structure and stimulus package this spring.
But both parties ap-peared ready to act Thurs-day, with lawmakers’ pa-tience wearing thin.
The CEO shave answered law makers’ questions sev-eral times now. Since 2018, Facebook CEO MarkZuck-er berg has appeared before Congress six times, while Twitter’s Jack Dorsey has appeared four times and Google’ s Sun dar Pichai has appeared three times.
Mr. Zuckerberg said in prepared remarks at the start of the hearing that he would support changing the liability law. Facebook, which owns Ins tag ram, has run advertisements in re-cent months in support of updating internet regula-tions.
He argued that instead of automatically being granted immunity from lawsuits, online platforms should be required to “demonstrate that they have systems in place for identifying unlawful con-tent and removing it .”
Mr. Zuckerberg high-lighted Facebook’ s actions, saying his social media net-work has banned more than 250 white supremacist groups and 890 militarized social movements and has worked to block QA non conspiracy theorists, the Proud Boys and militia groups from using Face-book to mobilize support.
Meanwhile, Mr. Pichai of Google, which owns You Tube, told lawmakers that Section 230 reform could threaten its ability to legally remove harmful con-tent. Section 230 is “founda-tion alto the open web, which has been a powerful force for good for so many ,” he said.
Mr. Dorsey said he gener-ally supported Section 230 reform but that the specifics would be complex .
“Some of you will say we are doing too much andre-moving free speech rights ,” he said. “Some of you will say we are not doing enough and end up causing more harm. Both points of view are reasonable and worth exploring.”
Mr. Doyle argued the companies had clearly not done enough.
He said his office had continued to find content that promotes hateful content and disinformation about the COVID- 19 vaccine.
“You can take down this content, you can reduce division, you can fix this — but you choose not to,” Mr. Doyle said.
During questioning, Mr. Doyle asked the CEOs whether their platforms bore any responsibility for the Capitol riots. Mr. Zuckerberg and Mr. Pichai would not give a yes or no answer, while Mr. Dorsey said yes.
“My point is I think the responsibility here lies with the people who took the actions to break the law and do the insurrection,” Mr. Zuckerberg said. “And secondarily, also, the people who spread that content — including the president, but others as well — with repeated rhetoric over time, saying the election was rigged and encouraging people to organize, I think that those people bear the primary responsibility.”
“But your platforms supercharged that,” Mr. Doyle responded. “Many of us just find it unacceptable.”
Mr. Doyle then asked about false vaccine information on their platforms. Just a dozen accounts on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram account for 65% of all the vaccine disinformation, he said.
“Look at it today and get back to us tomorrow, because those still exist,” Mr. Doyle told Mr. Zuckerberg. “We found them just last night.”