【1993 Archives】

It looks like Facebook founder993 ArchivesCEO Mark Zuckerberg will be headed back to Capitol Hill for another Congressional hearing.

And he’ll be joined by Google CEO Sundar Pichai and Twitter’s Jack Dorsey.

On Thursday, the Senate Commerce Committee voted to subpoenathe three CEOs to testify at a hearing on Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act.

Section 230has become a rallying point for both Democrats and Republicans. This key provision basically shields internet companies from liability for the content their users post. However, Democrats and Republicans aren't happy with Section 230 for very different reasons.

Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden, for example, has called for revokingSection 230 in order to hold tech companies responsible for dangerous misinformation and hate speech that spread on their platforms.

Republicans, on the other hand, focus their ire on Facebook, Twitter, and Google due to the belief that these companies censor conservative views. In May, President Donald Trump signedan executive order targeting Section 230 after Twitter fact-checkedtwo of his tweets.

It should be noted that even a Facebook study led by former Republican Sen. Jon Kyl could not find any evidenceof anti-conservative bias on the world’s largest social media platform.

As CNBCpoints out, the parties disagreed on holding this hearing for that very reason. The top Democrat on the committee, Sen. Maria Cantwell, was against the subpoenas, which were originally introduced by the committee chairman, Republican Sen. Roger Wicker. However, CNBC reports that Cantwell changed her position after Republicans added "language in the subpoena about privacy and 'media domination.'"

Cantwell said she doesn't want to see a “chilling effect on individuals who are in a process of trying to crack down on hate speech or misinformation about Covid during a pandemic," according to CNBC.

According to the BBC, the Congressional report concerning the event will likely be published next week. Then, we’ll have more information about when Zuckerberg, Pichai, and Dorsey will head to Capitol Hill. Although, just like the last timeZuckerberg and Pichai faced questions from Congress in July, it’ll probably be virtually due to the pandemic.

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