The leaders of the Senate Intelligence Committee vowed Wednesday to pursue additional federal oversight of technology firms like Facebook and Twitter.
“The size and reach of your platforms demand that we, as policy-makers, do our job, to ensure proper oversight, transparency and protections for American users and for our democratic institutions,” Sen. Mark Warner, the committee’s vice chairman, told firm representatives during a hearing on use of the platforms by foreign adversaries to influence American politics. “The era of the Wild West in social media is coming to an end. Where we go from here is an open question.”
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The panel’s intent is not to ask “gotcha” questions, said Warner, a Virginia Democrat, but to seek input from Facebook and Twitter to help “shape actual policy solutions.” Members want to find a middle-ground that “get us somewhere beyond the status quo” without putting too much regulatory burden on the companies, he told the companies.
“We should be mindful to adopt policies that do not simply entrench the existing dominant platforms,” Warner added. “These are not just challenges for our politics or our democracy. These threats can affect our economy, our financial system, and other parts of our lives.”
Chairman Richard Burr echoed those comments.
“If the answer is regulation, let’s have an honest discussion,” the North Carolina Republican said. “Technology always moves faster than regulation, and to be frank, the products and services that enable social media don’t fit neatly into the consumer safety and regulatory constructs of the past.”
“Whatever the answer is, we’ve got to do this collaboratively and we’ve got to do this now,” Burr added.
Both Burr and Warner criticized Google for declining to send a top executive to the hearing.
Twitter founder Jack Dorsey is set to tell panel that the company has suspended 770 Iranian-linked accounts and 3,843 accounts linked to the Internet Research Agency, the Russian organization that spread disinformation in advance of the 2016 presidential election.
