The chief executives of Facebook, Google and Twitter will face Congress on Thursday to discuss the misinformation crisis and defend the liability shield that helped establish the industry.
Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Facebook, Jack Dorsey, CEO of Twitter, and Sandra Pichai, CEO of Google, will all attend.
In written testimony to be delivered to the House Energy and Trade Committee, Zuckerberg of Facebook and Dorsey from Twitter discuss how their platforms reflect the views of society as a whole.
"Our community is deeply divided, and we see that in our services as well," Zuckerberg said.
Dorsey spoke of a "lack of confidence", which affects the entire "information ecosystem".
The testimony of the three chief executives has become a norm in Congress over the past year, as companies have been pushed to defend their competitive practices and content modification policies.
Thursday's session will be Zuckerberg's fourth testimony to Congress since July.
It will be third for Dorsey and Sundar Pichai of Google during the same period.
Here's what they plan to say, according to their written notes:
Zuckerberg plans to tell Congress that political and hate content are only a small part of what Facebook users see.
Political posts account for only about 6% of what users see in the United States on their news feed, and the prevalence of bad content users see is less than 0.08%.
Zuckerberg will outline the steps Facebook has taken to combat misinformation on the company's platforms about the elections and the Corona pandemic, as Facebook uses verification tools to help expose misinformation, and seeks to crack down on pages that spread the wrong content and monetize it.
The company invested in local news and promoted reliable sources about the virus and vaccine to publish the tested information.
Zuckerberg also plans to discuss Facebook's efforts to remove objectionable content from its platforms.
This has removed more than 250 white supremacist groups and 890 social-military movements so far.
Zuckerberg will say his platform has banned hate groups, and he will advise lawmakers on how to reform Section 230 of the Communications Etiquette Act, the law that protects platforms from becoming liable for their users' posts.
The Facebook CEO will ask lawmakers to focus on transparency and consider making protections conditional on companies' ability to meet best practices to prevent the spread of illegal content.
Zuckerberg argues that platforms should be evaluated on the adequacy of their systems to handle illegal content.
What constitutes an appropriate system must depend on the size of the platform, and set by a third party that guarantees fair and clear practices, rather than holding the platforms responsible for the individual parts of the content, which fall under the loopholes of their policies.
The congressional session will be attended by Zuckerberg from Facebook, Jack Dorsey from Twitter and Sandra Pichai from Google (Reuters)
Dorsey's certification will focus on the "lack of trust" that exists on and off technology platforms.
In his written notes, the Twitter boss detailed how Twitter plans to gain the trust of its users by promoting transparency, making its procedures fair, and giving users control over their privacy settings and the algorithms that affect what they see on the platform.
Twitter is also experimenting with two projects it hopes will help combat misinformation.
The first is Birdwatch, an experimental program that allows Twitter users to think about information they think is wrong to add relevant context.
The second is Bluesky, an independent team funded by Twitter that works to create open, decentralized standards for social media.
Dorsey said the system should help startups, which lack the resources, process abuse and hate speech more easily.
Pichai will shed light on Google's work to show reliable sources and combat misinformation about the elections and the Coronavirus pandemic.
In his written testimony, Google discussed investment in training and journalistic resources, advertising grants for government agencies and non-profit organizations to display public service announcements about COVID-19, and additional safeguards put in place before the 2020 elections to verify advertisers.
Unlike Zuckerberg, Pichai is not making a specific proposal to reform Section 230. Instead, he plans to tell lawmakers that he is "concerned" that recent proposals to change or repeal the law will backfire on the stated goals of improving the platforms' accountability.
Pichai wrote that such proposals would harm freedom of expression and the ability of the platforms to take action on harmful posts.
Instead, it offers suggestions for actions the platforms can take to improve transparency and fairness about their policies, and says Google is "committed not only to playing our part in our services, but also to improving transparency across our industry."