Facebook, Twitter CEOs in talks to testify at House hearing as soon as March
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The chief executives of Facebook and Twitter are in talks with House of Representatives lawmakers to testify at a hearing as early as March, Politico reported on Friday, citing people familiar with the plans.
The exact focus of the hearing is not yet clear and the date is not fixed, the report said citing another source.
According to a spokesperson, Facebook has discussed making its chief executive, Mark Zuckerberg, available to appear before the House Energy and Commerce Committee. Twitter and its chief, Jack Dorsey, have discussed the same, Politico reported.
According to the report, the joint testification of both Facebook and Twitter CEOs alongside Sundar Pichai, chief executive of Google and its parent company, Alphabet could be contingent on them. If the CEOs of the giant social media platforms appear, it could also mark the third time in less than six months that Dorsey and Zuckerberg have testified before Congress.
House E&C Chair Frank Pallone (D-N.J.) last month announced the plans to investigate what kind of role these platforms' have played in the storming of the Capitol by former President Donald Trump's supporters. The committee, which has broad jurisdiction over a range of technology and health issues, has separately scrutinized social media companies' efforts to combat Covid-19 misinformation, particularly anti-vaccine content.
Lawmakers have been taking the tech companies to task for issues ranging from potential antitrust violations to the way social media companies handle misleading content and minsinformation.
According to Reuters, Facebook, Google and Twitter did not immediately respond to their requests for a comment regarding this. The House Energy and Commerce Committee has also declined to comment.
All three chiefs appeared at a hearing of the Senate Commerce Committee in October. Republican lawmakers questioned them about their content moderation decisions while Democrats primarily focused on insufficient actions against misinformation that interfered with the election.