The two biggest moments of Tuesday's hearing about Russian propaganda on social media put Facebook in the crosshairs.
"You put billions of data points together all the time. You can't put together rubles with a political ad?" asked Sen. Al Franken of Facebook General Counsel Colin Stretch during one of the hearing's most heated exchanges on Tuesday.
The hearing also featured the general counsels of Google and Twitter, but they were mostly a sideshow to the haymakers thrown at Facebook. The social network was on the receiving end of the most pointed questions and the most heated exchanges.
Two moments stood out. The first came from Sen. John Kennedy, who pressed Stretch in the first hour of the hearing on Facebook's ability to determine the identities of the people and companies that bought ads on its platform, as well as the company's ability to track people and use that data to target ads and content.
“You got 5 million advertisers, and you’re going to tell me you’re able to trace the origin of all those?” Sen. John Kennedy had asked earlier.
Tuesday's hearing is the first of three to be held this week and starred senators in the Crime and Terrorism Subcommittee. They questioned the general counsels a.k.a. the top lawyers of Facebook, Twitter, and Google. All of those companies are battling impending regulation of their advertising businesses in wake of the revelation that Russia-linked accounts purchased ads during the 2016 election.
Facebook profited from Russian bought ads during the 2016 election. So did Twitter and Google. But viewers of the hearing may have forgotten about the latter two. Facebook, far more than its peers, was the brunt of lawmakers' questioning of the three representatives on Tuesday:
"Your power scares me," Sen. Kennedy said as he started his questioning the general counsel representatives, where the majority of his questions were directed to Stretch. He listed several foreign nations and asked one by one if Stretch knew if his platform took money from them during previous elections.
It's not surprising Facebook took the heat. On Monday night, the social network admitted that Russian propaganda reached 126 million Americans. Facebook had the most pieces of content purchased by Russia-linked accounts, according to the data provided to senators from the tech companies. Facebook had 80,000 posts from 470 accounts while Twitter uncovered 2,752 accounts and Google found only two accounts and 1,108 YouTube videos.
Facebook's acceptance of Russian rubles for political ads fueled the second-most heated exchange, with Franken pushing Facebook to explain how that didn't tip them off to Russia's efforts.
Also at the hearing, Sen. Christopher Coons made public one of the Facebook ads bought by Russian accounts. The ad, reportedly paid for in rubles, called for the army to be taken away from Hillary Clinton if she were to win the presidency. The senator also revealed a Facebook event started by a Russia-linked account for a "Miners for Trump" event in Pennsylvania.
The hearings are of particular importance due to impending legislation that could put Facebook, Google, Twitter, and other tech companies under tighter regulation over political ads.
Tweet may have been deleted
Sen. Amy Klobuchar, who co-sponsored the bill called the "Honest Ads Act," asked Facebook's Stretch, "Will you support our bill?"
"Our commitment," he began to reply until Sen. Klobuchar cut him off.
"That's not what I asked," she said.
Facebook, Twitter, and Google have each publicly shared changes they will make to be more transparent on political ads and prevent foreign interference in the future elections. Yet, lawmakers like Sen. Klobuchar and Sen. Kennedy are not confident in the companies' abilities to regulate themselves.
Google stayed quite mum during the majority of the hearing. As the third seat on the table, Google's General Counsel Richard Salgado was able to reply to many of the lawmakers' questions with "I agree." Same with Twitter's Sean Edgett.
In his prepared testimony, Google's general counsel emphasized that the company's lack of ad targeting actually makes it less valuable to propagandists compared to Facebook and Twitter.
"Google's products also don't lend themselves to the kind of targeting or viral dissemination tools that these actors seem to prefer," he said.
Lawmakers were seemingly less interested in what he had to add. Even one question directed at Google seemed like a softball:
Tweet may have been deleted
But lawmakers will have another chance to grill whoever they choose. On Wednesday, the general counsel will meet with the Select Intelligence Committees of the Senate and the House.
TopicsFacebookGoogleSocial MediaTwitterDonald TrumpElectionsHillary ClintonPolitics
(责任编辑：休閑)
Darth Vader is back. Why do we still care?
A bald eagle went rogue at college football game and landed on fans
Apple is bringing iTunes and AirPlay 2 to Samsung TVs
Michelle Obama on Trump: 'You don’t get results when you go low'
Singapore rolls out videoThe five guys who climbed Australia's highest mountain, in swimwear
Climbing a freezing cold mountain is already hard enough work. But in briefs? Nope. 。It's too late fo
...[详细]4 free sites for creating your own comics
In the days of cold, hard newsprint, only people who could draw were successful comic strip authors.
...[详细]True friend takes 'send me a pic' to a whole new level
Anyone that’s ever done their shopping online knows that things always look different in real
...[详细]HBO's Twitter account just burned Jack Dorsey
Nothing brings out a perfectly workshopped diss like a little cross-industry promotional opportunism
...[详细]This coloring book is here for all your relationship goals
LONDON -- We are living through the golden age of celebrity relationships. Gone are the days of tort
...[详细]These people aren't real. Can you tell?
The image above looks like a collage of photographs, but in fact, it's been generated by an artifici
...[详细]
Beware of spoilers: minor, animal-centric plot points are sprinkled throughout this article. Right u
...[详细]Gal Gadot finishes filming on 'Wonder Woman' sequel, posts heartwarming message
Shortly after news that Wonder Woman 1984's release date has been pushed back, Gal Gadot has wrapped
...[详细]Darth Vader is back. Why do we still care?
They saved the best for last in the first official trailer for Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, release
...[详细]'Chilling Adventures of Sabrina' will return this spring
Thought you'd have to wait until next Halloween for more Chilling Adventures of Sabrina? Not so, wit
...[详细]Samsung Galaxy Note7 teardown reveals the magic behind the phone's iris scanner
The 8 best new television shows of 2018
