INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
Twitter chief executive Jack Dorsey and Facebook chief operations officer Sheryl Sandberg will testify in an open hearing at the Senate
Intelligence Committee next week, the committee chairman has confirmed.
Larry Page, chief executive of Google parent company Alphabet, was
also invited but has not confirmed his attendance, a committee spokesperson confirmed to TechCrunch.
Sen
Richard Burr (R-NC) said in a release that the social media giants will be asked about their responses to foreign influence operations on
their platforms in an open hearing on September 5.
It will be the second time the Senate Intelligence Committee, which oversees the
government intelligence and surveillance efforts, will have called the companies to testify
But it will be the first time that senior leadership will attend — though, Facebook chief executive Mark Zuckerberg did attend a House
Energy and Commerce Committee hearing in April.
It comes in the wake of Twitter and Facebook recently announcing the suspension of accounts
from their platforms that they believeto be linked to Iranian and Russian political meddling
Social media companies have been increasingly under the spotlight in the past years following Russian efforts to influence the 2016
presidential election with disinformation.
A Twitter spokesperson said the company didn&t yet have details to share on the committee
TechCrunch also reached out to Google and Facebook for comment and will update when we hear back.
