Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg, left, accompanied by Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey are sworn in before the Senate Intelligence Committee hearing. | Jose Luis Magana/AP Photo Twitter's Dorsey takes heat on bias allegations: Key moments from tech hearings

Republican lawmakers Wednesday revived allegations that Twitter has suppressed conservative voices on its platform, a claim that Democrats and company CEO Jack Dorsey sharply challenged in the second of two back-to-back, high-stakes congressional hearings for the tech leader.

At a House Energy and Commerce committee hearing, GOP leaders said they remain unsatisfied with Twitter's explanations for what they see as "shadow banning" that reduces the visibility of their accounts. The flap gained renewed prominence last month, after President Donald Trump took to Twitter to bash tech companies for "silencing millions of people" — a claim he has yet to substantiate.


Earlier Wednesday, Dorsey and Facebook chief operating officer Sheryl Sandberg fielded questions for nearly three hours on their companies' efforts to combat online disinformation and foreign influence operations ahead of the midterm elections. Lawmakers also pressed the executives on an array of issues including data privacy, hate speech and doing business in China.

Both hearings, however, veered into bizarre political theater at times, complete with a disruption from a screaming far-right activist who was drowned out by Republican Billy Long performing an auctioneering routine; a conspicuously empty chair set aside in the Senate hearing to highlight Google's absence; and a cameo from InfoWars host Alex Jones.

Here’s a look at the top moments from the hearings so far.

Republicans reignite shadow-banning, censorship claims

House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Greg Walden began his questioning of Dorsey by raising GOP allegations of shadow banning.

Republicans claim an incident this summer in which some conservative accounts were excluded from Twitter's auto-complete search field is part of that trend.

Dorsey said the incident was part of an experimentation with the search function that was quickly corrected. He stressed the company strives for "impartiality" and has found no evidence of a bias against conservatives in its algorithms.

"Looking at the data, we analyzed tweets sent by all members of the House and Senate, and found no statistically significant difference between the number of times a tweet by a Democrat is viewed versus a Republican, even after our ranking and filtering of tweets has been applied," he said at the start of the hearing.

But Walden said the practice of limiting the visibility of certain accounts was troublesome.

"It doesn't matter what your definition of shadow banning is, when the expectation you are giving to your users who choose to follow certain accounts is different from what they see on their timeline and in their searches," he said.

But Democrats decried the hearing as politically-driven

Democrats, who have long argued the GOP's anti-tech crusade is politically motivated and disingenuous, cited the president's own Twitter habits in challenging Republican claims of bias.

“I think it’s the height of hypocrisy when Trump and congressional Republicans criticize Twitter for supposed political bias when he uses the platform every day for his juvenile tweets and spreading lies,” said Rep. Frank Pallone, the panel's top Democrat.

Still, Pallone said Twitter needs to take steps to protect its users.

"Twitter's policies have been inconsistent and confusing. The company's enforcement seems to chase the latest headline as opposed to addressing systemic problems," he said.

Dorsey offers concessions, apologies

Dorsey offered a series of mea culpas on Wednesday, acknowledging shortcomings in Twitter's content moderation and transparency practices.

Asked about a doctored photo of a grieving Meghan McCain with a gun pointed to her head, which circulated for hours on Twitter, Dorsey vowed to apologize to the family.

The image appeared on Twitter during the memorial services for the late Sen. John McCain, who died last month following a battle with cancer. The post prompted Meghan McCain's husband, Ben Domenech, to tweet directly at Dorsey demanding that it be taken down.

Earlier in the day, the CEO conceded that the company needs to do more to inform users when a foreign influence campaign has been detected on its platform.

"We simply haven't done enough," Dorsey told Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine.).

Collins noted that Twitter has taken down more than 3,800 accounts linked to the Russian Internet Research Agency, including one purporting to represent the Tennessee GOP with more than 140,000 followers. They sometimes "spread conspiracy theories and false claims of voter fraud," Collins noted.



Sandberg short on details on ad revenue tied to trolls

Facebook's Sandberg didn't have many hard details to offer as Sen. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.) peppered her with questions about revenue from Russian troll farms.

Harris asked Sandberg how much revenue Facebook generated from content — both ads and free posts — from Russia's Internet Research Agency.

Sandberg said the IRA spent a total of $100,000 on ads, a tally Facebook previously disclosed. But she said there's no way of knowing just how much revenue Facebook made off the IRA and other Russian accounts.

Still, Sandberg said, "Any amount is too much."





Manchin floats changing liability protections for tech

Sen. Joe Manchin asked Dorsey and Sandberg about the sale of opioids drugs on their platforms.

“Do you all feel any responsibility?” Manchin asked. “A lot of people have been affected and a lot of people have died receiving information about how to obtain drugs through y’all’s platforms.”

Manchin suggested Congress could again chisel away at Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, which affords internet firms legal protections for content posted by users. Lawmakers earlier this year passed a carveout for cases of online sex trafficking.

“We passed bills that held you liable,” Manchin said about the anti-sex trafficking effort. “Don’t you think we should do the same with opioid drugs and the way they’re being used on your platform?”

Dorsey replied that Twitter is "certainly open to dialogue" on the issue and Sandberg echoed the remarks, adding that Facebook would "want to work very closely on how this would be enacted."

Brawling over Beijing

Sen. Marco Rubio pressed Sandberg on how the social networking site handles repressive regimes overseas, asking whether Facebook would bend its principles to enter markets like China, where it's currently blocked.

"We would only operate in a country when we can do so in keeping with our values," Sandberg said.

“And that would apply to China as well?” Rubio followed up.

"That would apply to China as well,” Sandberg replied.

China has become a lucrative growth market for companies like Apple. But the Chinese government's tight controls over citizens' speech on the internet has kept out companies like Facebook, Google and Twitter.

Alt-right social media personalities make surprise appearances

InfoWars founder Alex Jones livestreamed his entrance into the Senate building early Wednesday, and proceeded to slam Facebook and Twitter outside the hearing room.

"I'm here to face my accuser," Jones told reporters at one point.

Last month, many of the major internet companies said Jones violated their rules against hate speech and inciting violence. Twitter suspended him, while Facebook, Google's YouTube and other platforms banned him outright.

On Wednesday, Jones cited those actions as he called for the breakup of big tech companies.

Just a few hours later, during the House hearing, far-right activist Laura Loomer stood up and started shouting from the back of the hearing room.

“You are a liar, Jack Dorsey!” yelled Loomer, a former operative with the conservative undercover video producer Project Veritas.

At Walden's request, Capitol police officers escorted Loomer out. At that, Rep. Billy Long dusted off his professional training (he was an auctioneer and radio host before being elected to Congress) with a rapid-fire imitation of a live auction, meant to drown out the uninvited guest.

And Jones squabbled with Rubio

The fireworks continued in the halls of Congress as Jones confronted Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), who was speaking to reporters.

The exchange quickly went downhill when the senator warned the conspiracy-peddling host, who was standing beside him in the hallway, to “not touch me again.”

“I’m just patting you nicely,” Jones responded, before accusing Rubio of trying to get him arrested. Rubio rebuffed the charge, adding: “I’ll take care of you myself.”

"Rubio just threatened to physically take care of me," Jones replied, an insinuation Rubio disputed.

Google a no-show

Senate Intelligence leaders criticized Google for not sending a CEO to speak alongside Sandberg and Dorsey after weeks of publicly sparring with the search giant over the matter.

"Google has an immense responsibility in this space," Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.), the panel's top Democrat, said in opening comments at the hearing. "Given its size and influence, I would have thought the leadership at Google would want to demonstrate how seriously it takes these challenges and to lead this important public discussion."

Committee Chairman Richard Burr (R-N.C.) and Warner both said they were "disappointed" in Google, which sent neither CEO Sundar Pichai nor Larry Page, the head of Google parent company Alphabet. Google had offered senior vice president of global affairs Kent Walker, but the committee rejected that option.

The committee followed through on threats to place an empty chair labeled "Google" where an executive would have sat, in a symbolic rebuke of the company.

John Hendel and Ashley Gold contributed to this report.