Wicker Encouraged by Zuckerberg's Comments on CDA S. 230

It’s encouraging that Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg endorsed the concept of “more specific rules” in Communications Decency Act Section 230, Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Roger Wicker, R-Miss., told us after Wednesday’s hearing. “We may be getting somewhere,” he said, though he noted it wasn’t an endorsement of the Republican bill pushing the concept (see 2009220064).

Congress should update Section 230 to make sure it’s working as intended, Zuckerberg said during his testimony. Facebook supports “ideas around transparency and industry collaboration,” he said. Google CEO Sundar Pichai and Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey also testified.

Dorsey told the committee Twitter agrees with the goals of legislation from Sens. John Thune, R-S.D., and Brian Schatz, D-Hawaii, seeking to provide more transparency about content moderation decisions (see 2006240059). Twitter is voluntarily publishing more information about the decisions it makes, he noted.

There’s agreement about the need for more transparency on algorithms, Thune told reporters: Wednesday’s hearing will hopefully lead to voluntary action from the platforms or legislation. Thune said he spoke with Zuckerberg about the legislation and hopes Twitter is open to it: “I think they realize that they’ve got to do something here,” because they’re losing the trust of the public and Congress.

The conversation is broader than Section 230, said ranking member Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., citing privacy and news market issues: This is “one of many, many conversations” the committee will have about these issues. Wicker agreed there will be more hearings on the matter. Cantwell and Democrats repeatedly blasted Republicans for holding the hearing six days before the election, claiming the GOP is attempting to bully the tech companies. Schatz called the hearing “an embarrassment,” and rather than question the CEOs, he used his seven minutes to berate Republicans about alleged attempts to tip the election in their favor.

Wicker asked reporters when Democrats “thought the hearing would be,” noting the vote to subpoena the CEOs was unanimous and bipartisan (see 2010010042). Commerce has been seeking the testimony for “over a year,” Wicker said, saying the hearing was scheduled as soon as possible.

Congress should be “very thoughtful” about changes to Section 230 and the consequences, testified Pichai. All sides share the goal of “free access to information” for everyone, he said. Congress should be “mindful that undermining Section 230 will result in far more removal of online speech and impose severe limitations on our collective ability to address harmful content and protect people online,” said Dorsey.

Conservatives largely focused on allegations of anti-conservative bias. Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, asked the CEOs to name one person or entity with liberal politics that the company has labeled or blocked from platforms. Twitter has taken action against House Democrats, said Dorsey. Zuckerberg couldn’t name specific examples, and Pichai listed several groups Google has denied advertising to. Lee called disparity between treatment of conservative and liberal points of view “enormous.”

Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., asked the CEOs if their company workforces are split evenly between party lines or if they are closer to about “90%” liberal. Zuckerberg and Pichai said their companies tend to be left-leaning based on geographical location. Dorsey said the political makeup of the workforce isn’t something Twitter focuses on.

The White House likely played a role in holding the hearing so close to the election, said Sen. Jon Tester, D-Mont. Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., called the hearing an attempt to "bully and browbeat" social media platforms into making content moderation decisions more favorable to one party. Sen. Deb Fischer, R-Neb., denied Schatz’s characterization that the hearing was a “sham.” She called it an opportunity to gain clarity about platform policies, which are integral to the democratic process. Cantwell suggested the hearing could have been held later. Republicans are politicizing what shouldn’t be a partisan topic, said Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn.

Google is abusing its power by manipulating search algorithms, but Twitter has shown the most egregious examples of bias through its handling of the New York Post’s Hunter Biden story, said Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, (see 2010140064).Twitter doesn’t have the power to affect elections, said Dorsey, noting people have choice over their communication channels. Twitter policies are focused on allowing freedom of speech, he told Cruz, who called the response “absurd.”

Republicans repeatedly pointed to Twitter’s lack of moderation over the Iranian ayatollah’s anti-Israel tweets. It’s strange Twitter flagged tweets from President Donald Trump but allowed tweets from the ayatollah saying Israel should be “wiped off the map,” said Sen. Cory Gardner, R-Colo. Wicker drew attention to a tweet from FCC Chairman Ajit Pai recounting four tweets from the Iranian supreme leader that Twitter didn’t label (see 2005290058). All four tweets glorified violence, calling for destruction of the “Zionist regime,” said Wicker. Those tweets didn’t violate Twitter’s terms, Dorsey told Wicker, calling the comments “saber rattling” and geopolitical speech. It’s important for users to hear from world leaders, said Dorsey. That’s “very telling information,” Wicker said.

Senate Intelligence Committee Vice Chairman Mark Warner, D-Va., echoed Democrats in a statement, saying a conversation about Section 230 is needed, but it should be “thoughtful and not serve as a cudgel to cow the platforms into continued inaction regarding efforts to manipulate their services 6 days ahead of the election.” Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., said the GOP’s obsession with “forcing private companies to print misinformation, lies and hate speech is unconstitutional and lays bare how little this is about Section 230 and how much it is a transparent attempt to work the refs a week before the election.”