Tech CEOs Come Under Fire for Online Disinformation, Lack of Accountability -- 2nd Update

By Ryan Tracy 

WASHINGTON -- Lawmakers blamed big technology companies for an array of societal problems Thursday, excoriating their CEOs for lack of accountability and building momentum for legislation to weaken the liability shield enjoyed by online platforms.

At a House hearing Thursday, the chief executives of Facebook Inc., Twitter Inc., Alphabet Inc. and its Google unit were accused of running social media platforms that sow political discord, spread Covid-19 misinformation and create a dangerous environment for children.

"Your business model itself has become the problem," said Rep. Frank Pallone (D., N.J.), the chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee. Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R. Wash.), the panel's top Republican, told the CEOs, "Your platforms are my biggest fear as a parent."

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey, and Sundar Pichai, CEO of Alphabet Inc., which owns Google and YouTube, defended their products' benefits and denied that they profit from harmful content.

Much of the hearing focused directly or indirectly on Section 230, the law that generally shields online platforms from liability for the content that their users post, but also gives the platforms broad discretion to remove that content.

Republicans and Democrats have been divided over both the shortcomings of 230 and the remedies to correct them, but Thursday's hearing indicated there was bipartisan support for revising the law.

"We're going to see some changes in Section 230," said Rep. Fred Upton (R., Mich.), the committee's former chairman.

The CEOs are appearing via video before a House panel for the first time since the Jan. 6 Capitol riot. They began the hearing by addressing questions about social media's role in fomenting the discord and their subsequent decisions to suspend or ban former President Donald Trump.

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg pushed back against lawmakers' blaming of his company for societal ills, laying out Facebook seeks to deal with harmful or false content.

"It's not possible to catch every piece of harmful content without infringing on people's freedoms in a way that I don't think we'd be comfortable with as a society," he said. "The system isn't perfect, but it's the best approach we've found."

Pressed on Facebook's responsibility for the Jan. 6 event, he said, "I believe that the former president should be responsible for his words and that the people who broke the law should be responsible for their actions."

Google CEO Sundar Pichai said false information spreading online presents "a big challenge without easy answers," and noted that the free flow of information on the web "has been a powerful force for good for so many."

Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey said his company makes "mistakes in prioritization and executions. We commit to being open about these and doing our best to remedy what we control." But he warned lawmakers about a world without content takedowns: "If we woke up tomorrow and decided to stop moderating content, we would end up with a service very few people or advertisers would want to use."

Mr. Zuckerberg said Congress should consider forcing digital platforms to earn the legal immunity they enjoy hosting third-party content, a legal change that could affect a range of online businesses.

Mr. Zuckerberg suggested changes to Section 230, the law that says platforms such as Facebook generally aren't liable for what their users post.

"Instead of being granted immunity, platforms should be required to demonstrate that they have systems in place for identifying unlawful content and removing it," he said in his prepared testimony.

Mr. Zuckerberg said Section 230 protection could be applied only to large platforms to address competition concerns.

The comments were the most detailed yet from Mr. Zuckerberg on the issue. He had previously signaled openness to changing Section 230 in more general terms.

Both Democrats and Republicans are concerned that Section 230 gives large tech companies too much leeway to decide what information Americans see, though the parties have different concerns.

The law, an element of the 1996 Communications Decency Act, helped fuel the growth of social media by giving internet platforms immunity for comments that users, reviewers, consumers and others post on their sites.

Evan Greer, deputy director of the advocacy group Fight for the Future, said her group opposes scaling back 230 protections on grounds that doing so could devastate smaller platforms and internet startups that don't have the resources of tech giants.

"Of course Facebook wants to see changes to Section 230," Ms. Greer said. "Because they know it will simply serve to solidify their monopoly power and crush competition from smaller and more decentralized platforms."

Many Republicans think social-media platforms are removing too much content under Section 230, while Democrats see them not removing enough and allowing harmful content to spread.

To date, those divisions have stood in the way of any consensus on how to change Section 230, and no bill to do so has gained significant traction on Capitol Hill. Facebook has been publicly supporting internet regulations for months, as it faces scrutiny over alleged antitrust violations and its content-moderation practices.

Twitter and Google have indicated that they are open to discussing legal changes with Congress, but they have been less specific than Facebook about what Section 230 changes they would support.

"We rely on the liability protections to actually take strong action on particularly new types of content," such as a video of a mass shooting, Mr. Pichai told lawmakers.

Mr. Dorsey cautioned against allowing governments to decide content-moderation practices. "Forcing every business to behave the same reduces innovation and individual choice," he said.

He also questioned the idea of differentiating between large and small platforms. "I think it's going to be very hard to determine what is a large platform and a small platform, and it may incentivize the wrong things," he said.

Write to Ryan Tracy at [e-mail]

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

March 25, 2021 16:23 ET (20:23 GMT)

Copyright (c) 2021 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.