Big Tech chiefs face fresh grilling over misinformation

The CEOs of social media behemoths Twitter, Google and Facebook are back in the Congressional hot seat on Thursday over the spread of falsehoods and content inciting violence on their platforms.

The CEOs of social media giants Facebook, Twitter and Google face a new grilling by Congress Thursday, one focused on their efforts to prevent their platforms from spreading falsehoods and inciting violence. That’s been a familiar theme for lawmakers over the past few years. But the pressure is even higher following the January 6 insurrection at the United States Capitol, the rise in COVID-19 vaccine misinformation and united Democratic control of Congress and the White House. The latter could make legislative action more likely, although it remains far from a sure thing. As malicious conspiracy theories continue to spread, lawmakers are pounding the social media companies over their market dominance, harvesting of user data and practices that some believe actually encourage the spread of engaging but potentially harmful misinformation. Some Republicans have also alleged, without proof, that censorship and political bias against conservatives are another reason to rein in the enormous firms.