- The CEOs of Facebook, Google, and Twitter will testify before Congress on Thursday.
- In their planned testimonies, Zuckerberg and Pichai said they're open to regulation.
- Zuckerberg said firms still shouldn't be liable for content that slips through moderation systems.
- See more stories on Insider's business page.
The CEOs of Facebook, Twitter, and Google will face Congress on Thursday, and the executives' planned testimonies include ways in which their companies have attempted to crack down on COVID-19 and election misinformation, including in response to the January 6 insurrection at the US Capitol.
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg's prepared remarks point to what Congress can do moving forward. Zuckerberg said the company supports "updated Internet regulation to set the rules of the road" and hopes Congress can consider "thoughtful reform of Section 230," an important internet law that shields tech companies from being liable for content that users post on their sites.
Zuckerberg said platforms shouldn't be "granted immunity," but they should "be required to demonstrate that they have systems in place for identifying unlawful content and removing it." However, he said companies should still not be liable if a piece of harmful content slips through the cracks, similar to the protections Section 230 already affords platforms.
Section 230 shields tech companies from being liable for illegal content that users post on their platforms. It also gives them the power to choose what content, like misinformation and hate speech, to moderate. That's why online users can't claim they're protected by the First Amendment when they post something that Facebook or Twitter removes after determining it to be harmful.
Both Zuckerberg and Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey have warned previously that stripping tech companies of Section 230 protections would harm free expression on the internet. Google CEO Sundar Pichai took a similar stance in his prepared testimony, stating that regulation "has an important role to play." But Pichai wrote that recent proposals to reform Section 230, as well as calls to repeal it – which former President Donald Trump advocated for – would hinder platforms from being able to take action against harmful and misleading content.
Dorsey did not directly mention Section 230 in his prepared remarks.
Regulation of the tech industry has been politicized, with Republicans and Democrats calling for reform for different reasons. But reining in big tech companies has largely been a bipartisan issue.
Trump aggressively called for Section 230 to be revoked, particularly after Twitter began fact-checking his tweets about election fraud in May. And the Biden administration reportedly wants to at least reform Section 230 if not also revoke it.
Thursday's hearing was scheduled to discuss how false information spreads online, specifically misinformation around the COVID-19 pandemic, the 2020 presidential election, and the January 6 Capitol siege. The CEOs will attempt to defend their companies' actions to combat the spread of misinformation.
