Facebook, Google, Twitter CEOs to Testify Before US Congress on October 28

Facebook, Twitter, and Google CEOs Mark Zuckerberg, Jack Dorsey, and Sundar Pichai have agreed to testify before the US Congress on October 28. This comes a day after the US Senate’s Commerce Committee decided to subpoena the three top executives ahead of the US Presidential Elections. Sundar Pichai of Google, Mark Zuckerberg of Facebook, and Jack Dorsey, CEO of Twitter agreed to appear before the US Congress on October 28. The development was first reported by The Washington Post, which said that the hearing is said to be related to the proposed amendments to Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act.

The hearing will be related to changes being considered in the Section 230 of the 1996 Communications Decency Act of the United States. Section 230 protects social media platforms from lawsuits over posts made by users on their platforms. The US Justice Department unveiled its proposal to amend the Section 230 last week. The amendment seeks to remove protections for online platforms. It comes as a result of an executive order signed by US President Donald Trump in May after Twitter started fact-checking his tweets.

Twitter, in its response said, “Jack has voluntarily agreed to testify virtually before the Senate Commerce Committee on October 28 – less than a week before the US Presidential Elections.” Twitter also cleared its stand on Section 230 in its response. The platform said that it has “made its views clear on reactionary and politicised attempts to erode Section 230.” It said that the amendments to the Section 230 threaten the future of online speech and Internet freedoms. “Alleged ‘political bias’ remains an unsubstantiated allegation that we have refuted on many occasions to Congress. It has also been widely disproven by independent research,” the micro-blogging site said in a series of tweets. Facebook also agreed to attend the hearing, while Google did not comment, according to the Washington Post report.

Both Zuckerberg and Pichai had earlier testified before the US Congress in July, along with Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos and Apple CEO Tim Cook.