Democracy and the Digital Age: Congress Has a Big Tech Problem

In what has become a regular occurrence in Congress, top tech CEOs of Facebook, Google, and Twitter testified in front of lawmakers on Thursday, March 25 in a five-and-a-half-hour hearing about “social media’s role in promoting extremism and misinformation.”

The legislative focus of this hearing was Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, the legal safeguard that protects platforms from liability for their users’ posts, and allows them to moderate content as they desire. 

The tech leaders were peppered with questions about how their companies helped spread falsehoods around Covid-19 vaccines, enable racism, and hurt children’s mental health.

Google CEO Sundar Pichai, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, and Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey were the witnesses before two subcommittees of the House Energy and Commerce Committee at the joint hearing.

The executives defended themselves, as they have in previous Congressional hearings, by reminding Congress of their work to combat hate speech and misinformation surrounding Covid-19. 

However, this time, several House members pushed back and attacked them for failing to properly monitor their sites and prevent real-world harm. 

“We saw your platforms remove ISIS terrorist content; we saw you tamp down on COVID

misinformation at the beginning of the pandemic; we have seen disinformation drop when you

have promoted reliable news sources and removed serial disinformation super spreaders from

your platforms.” Rep. Mike Doyle (D-PA), said during the hearing. “You have the means, but time after time, you are picking engagement and profit over the health and safety of your users, our nation, and our democracy.”

In the questioning period, the social platforms were accused of “supercharging” extremism, including playing a “leading role in facilitating the recruitment planning and execution of the attack on the Capitol” in January 2021.   

Zuckerberg responded, referring to then-President Donald Trump. “My point is that I think that the responsibility here lies with the people who took the actions to break the law and … also the people who spread that content, including the President.”

Dorsey took more responsibility, saying that Twitter bore some blame in the attacks. 

Tensions continued to rise throughout the hearing as the tech giants refused to give a “yes” or “no” answer to the questions, offering long explanations instead.

Rep. Anna Eschoo (D-Calif.) asked Google CEO Sundar Pichai about the videos YouTube recommends to users. She listed concerns about YouTube being incentivized to recommend problematic content, which often gets more clicks to sell more ads. Eschoo requested that YouTube reform its system, which Pichai said has already happened several times. 

“If I may explain,” Pichai said.

“I don’t have time for you to explain,” Eschoo said. “We don’t do filibuster in the House. That’s something that’s done in the Senate.”

For years, the government and tech firms have been locked in a delicate dance, but the recent occurrences of extremism raise the question of whether a big tech overhaul is coming from the United States government.

Many Americans worry about the volume of personal data that the tech giants possess and the power that these companies have over their lives. Larger companies like Amazon and Apple would be added to the list as well.

Amazon accounts for nearly 40 percent of all e-commerce spending in America. Google gets more than 92 percent of global search engine inquiries. Apple became the first company to cross the $1 trillion mark in market capitalization—a market cap larger than the GDP of Saudi Arabia. Facebook has 2.7 billion monthly users. 

Though, a breakup may not be legal. The companies would need to have violated antitrust laws that can be resolved with an appropriate remedy. It cannot be done because politicians would like for it to happen. Additionally, if companies are broken up in an unprovoked way, economists have stated that could disrupt innovation. 

To stage a big tech breakup, the government would need to introduce modern legislation and bring in technical experts to understand the new digital age and the consequences that go along with it. Without these changes, tech companies will continue to operate with free will.