Facebook and Twitter leaders to testify on companies' response to disinformation


Facebook and Twitter executives head to Capitol Hill on Wednesday to testify about how their companies responded to foreign efforts to influence U.S. elections, The New York Times reports. According to written testimony, Facebook's chief operating officer, Sheryl Sandberg, and Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey plan to take an apologetic approach but also talk about their companies' mounting efforts to stem orchestrated outside attempts to spread disinformation and otherwise manipulate social media users.
"The actions we've taken in response ... show our determination to do everything we can to stop this kind of interference from happening," Sandberg said in written testimony. Sandberg and Dorsey will appear before the Senate Intelligence Committee in the morning. Google declined an invitation sent to Larry Page, CEO of Google parent Alphabet.
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Harold Maass is a contributing editor at The Week. He has been writing for The Week since the 2001 debut of the U.S. print edition and served as editor of TheWeek.com when it launched in 2008. Harold started his career as a newspaper reporter in South Florida and Haiti. He has previously worked for a variety of news outlets, including The Miami Herald, ABC News and Fox News, and for several years wrote a daily roundup of financial news for The Week and Yahoo Finance.
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