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U.S. NEWS Thursday 6 sepTember 2018
FOREIGN INTRUSION spokesman Devin O'Malley the same Russian internet
Continued from Front said Attorney General Jeff agency cited in Mueller's
The hearings come at a crit- Sessions will meet with a indictment. He said Twitter
ical time, just two months number of state attorneys has suspended 3,843 ac-
before the midterm elec- general later this month to counts it believes are con-
tions and as President Don- discuss the department's nected to that agency.
ald Trump has charged that concerns. Facebook has also taken
Twitter is biased against Re- Sandberg, 49, has exten- down pages this year that
publican views. sive Washington experi- it believes were tied to the
Senators had sharp words ence, typically acts as her agency.
for Alphabet CEO Larry company's public face At the House hearing, En-
Page. Sen. Marco Rubio, R- and clearly felt comfort- ergy and Commerce chair-
Fla., suggested the compa- able answering senators' man Greg Walden, R-Ore.,
ny was a no-show because questions. The bearded cited recent complaints
it was "arrogant." and tieless Dorsey, 41, is far that Twitter limited the vis-
Sandberg's appearance less of a public figure and ibility of prominent Repub-
came several months after was quiet and respectful in licans on its platform — a Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg, left, accompanied by Twitter
Facebook CEO Mark Zuck- his answers, even acknowl- charge echoed by Trump CEO Jack Dorsey are sworn in before the Senate Intelligence
erberg testified at highly edging at one point that himself. Committee hearing on 'Foreign Influence Operations and Their
Use of Social Media Platforms' on Capitol Hill, Wednesday, Sept.
publicized Capitol Hill hear- he is "typically pretty shy." "It takes years to build trust, 5, 2018, in Washington.
ings. Both contrasted with Zuck- but it only takes 280 char- Associated Press
Like Zuckerberg, she ac- erberg's sometimes awk- acters to lose it," Walden
knowledged Facebook's ward defiance during his said. "This hearing appears to be ers."
lag in recognizing Russian Washington appearance Dorsey has strongly denied one more mechanism to Jones railed against the
efforts to manipulate Face- in April. that political ideology has raise money and generate government, media and
book during and after the Thirteen Russians were in- played a part in any Twitter outrage," said Rep. Frank social media companies
2016 presidential election. dicted by special counsel algorithms that determine Pallone of New Jersey, the for more than 40 minutes in
Sandberg detailed Face- Robert Mueller this year on what users see. committee's top Demo- the hallway as the Senate
book's efforts to fight the charges of taking part in The assertion that conser- crat. Other Democrats hearing began. Later, he
problem with new technol- a plot to disrupt the 2016 vatives are being censored called it a "charade" and heckled a reporter outside
ogy and manpower. election by creating fake has also been pushed by "a load of crap." the House hearing room.
"We are even more deter- social media accounts that House Majority Leader Kev- Twitter came under fire Jones' appearance punc-
mined than our adversar- pushed divisive issues. in McCarthy, R-Calif., and from some on the far right tuated an otherwise order-
ies, and we will continue to Both Facebook and Twit- the No. 3 House Republi- after suspending conspira- ly day of hearings. The only
fight back," she said. ter are using artificial intel- can, Steve Scalise of Loui- cy theorist Alex Jones last other disruption was a pro-
Dorsey was candid with ligence and other increas- siana. month, as did Facebook. tester in the House hearing
both committees about ingly sophisticated technol- Committee Democrats Jones made an angry ap- who yelled at Dorsey about
what his company needs ogy to combat manipula- charged that Republicans pearance Wednesday out- bias — and was drowned
to improve, while defend- tion. Facebook is going af- were manufacturing the side both hearing rooms, out by a Republican law-
ing Twitter against allega- ter "inauthenticity," or fake issue ahead of the Novem- telling reporters he was maker who used his auc-
tions of bias. accounts. Twitter is focus- ber elections. there to "face my accus- tioneering skills.q
Holding his phone through- ing on analyzing behavior
out the hearings, Dorsey patterns to find suspicious
tweeted some of his open- activity because Twitter
ing statement to the Sen- technically allows "fake"
ate: "We aren't proud of accounts.
how that free and open The companies have made
exchange has been wea- many policy changes and
ponized and used to dis- have caught and banned
tract and divide people, malicious accounts over
and our nation. We found the past year. Still, their
ourselves unprepared and business models — free ser-
ill-equipped for the immen- vices that rely on attracting
sity of the problems we've as many users as possible
acknowledged." for as long as possible and
He added: "Abuse, harass- finding out as much about
ment, troll armies, propa- them as possible — remain
ganda through bots and the same, and that has
human coordination, misin- posed challenges in root-
formation campaigns, and ing out those bent on mis-
divisive filter bubbles — chief.
that's not a healthy public GOP Sen. Richard Burr of
square. Worse, a relatively North Carolina, the Intel-
small number of bad-faith ligence committee chair-
actors were able to game man, commended the
Twitter to have an outsized companies for their efforts
impact." but said Congress is con-
As the executives spoke, cerned that not enough
the Justice Department an- has been done.
nounced it would look at "Clearly, this problem is not
whether their companies going away," Burr said. "I'm
are hurting competition not even sure it's trending in
and "intentionally stifling the right direction."
the free exchange of ideas Dorsey said Twitter has con-
on their platforms." tinued to identify accounts
Justice Department that may be linked to