Zuckerberg and Dorsey face Harsh questioning from lawmakers

Mark Zuckerberg of Facebook and Jack Dorsey of Twitter testified about their platforms, misinformation and the 2020 election.

The Senate Judiciary Committee concluded its hearing with Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook’s chief executive, and Jack Dorsey, Twitter’s chief executive, after more than four hours and 127 questions on Tuesday.

Republicans dominated, asking most about content moderation.
Republicans asked 72 questions of the chief executives, 53 of which concerned how they moderate content on their social media platforms. Republican senators were particularly focused on how Twitter and Facebook could employ less moderation, with 37 questions about censoring conservative voices and the ideological makeup of their work forces.

Democrats asked 14 questions about content moderation, but most of those focused on whether more moderation could help prevent the spread of hate speech and violence.

Other topics were mentioned sparingly.
After content moderation, lawmakers asked most about misinformation, with 39 questions about the propagation of misinformation on social media platforms. Democrats lobbed 37 of those queries, often mentioning false claims made by President Trump about voter fraud in the presidential election.

Senator Amy Klobuchar, Democrat of Minnesota, briefly grilled both Mr. Dorsey and Mr. Zuckerberg on antitrust concerns. Senator Lindsey Graham, Republican of South Carolina, asked about whether Facebook and Twitter could become addictive.

Mr. Zuckerberg was asked the most questions.
Mr. Zuckerberg fielded the majority of the inquiries with 71, and Mr. Dorsey was asked 56 questions.

Mr. Graham, the committee chair, asked 15 questions, the most of any senator, while Republicans Ted Cruz of Texas and Josh Hawley of Missouri each asked 12 questions.

At Tuesday’s hearing on social media and misinformation, much of the discussion focused on the minutiae of how Facebook and Twitter carry out the process of moderating the billions of pieces of content regularly posted to their networks.

Both Democrats and Republicans zeroed in on the issue, according to a tally by The New York Times. Out of 127 total questions, more than half — or 67 — were about content moderation. Democrats asked 12 questions aimed at how Facebook and Twitter could increase their moderation efforts around topics like hate speech, while Republicans asked 37 questions about why some points of view were censored online and how content moderation could be decreased in some areas, according to the tally. (The remainder of the questions about content moderation did not indicate a clear desire for more or less moderation.)

In particular, Republican senators like Josh Hawley of Missouri, Mike Lee of Utah and Ted Cruz of Texas focused on the unproven idea that Facebook and Twitter unduly moderated posts by conservatives, compared with the amount of time spent labeling or taking down posts made by liberals.

That has been a recurring refrain from conservative Americans over the past few weeks as scores of people have claimed they will leave Facebook and Twitter for more permissive platforms like Parler, Rumble and MeWe. Facebook and Twitter have maintained that political affiliation has no bearing on how they enforce their rules.

On the other side of the aisle, Democrats said the companies had not gone far enough to moderate harmful content. Senator Richard Blumenthal, Democrat of Connecticut, brought up how the Facebook account of Steve Bannon, a former strategist for President Trump, was not taken down despite Mr. Bannon recently suggesting the beheading of Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation’s top infectious disease expert.

Mr. Zuckerberg said the account was given a “strike” and the post was taken down, but that Facebook’s policies do not require the account to be immediately banned. Twitter, by contrast, permanently suspended the account.

What Republicans and Democrats agreed on was that Facebook and Twitter have enforced their policies inconsistently, and often without elucidating why they had taken the steps that they did.

“We’re going to have to have more visibility into what’s occurred, and what has produced certain outcomes,” said Senator Thom Tillis, Republican of North Carolina, who remarked on how one of his Facebook posts on Veterans Day was moderated, without a clear reason as to why.

Mr. Zuckerberg and Mr. Dorsey agreed that reform around how content is moderated should be revisited. Mr. Zuckerberg has invited a new regulatory framework that could encompass content moderation across many of the largest tech platforms. Mr. Dorsey said his focus was on giving users more tools to control the content they see, perhaps through the use of algorithms tailored to individual users’ preferences.

“A centralized global content moderation system does not scale,” Mr. Dorsey said. The New York Times