Faced with US senators, Facebook and Twitter defend their management of the election

For the second time in less than a month, the CEOs of Facebook and Twitter had to answer questions from U.S. senators about their platforms' handling of disinformation during the presidential election.

For five hours, Mark Zuckerberg and Jack Dorsey suffered from the onslaught of Republicans, who feel they are unfairly censored on their social networks.

The hearing, held two weeks after the election, was called for by Republican senators following Twitter and Facebook blocking a controversial New York Post article about Hunter Biden, son of President-elect Joe Biden .

They accuse them of showing a political bias towards the Democrats, by limiting the distribution of an article damaging to Joe Biden published by the New York Post.

Following the election, messages from Donald Trump and his supporters, who refuse to concede the victory of Joe Biden, were accompanied by a warning.

In all, 300,000 tweets were pinned by Twitter.

And Facebook deleted the

, which brought together users questioning the election result.

This has revived criticism from Republicans, who see it as proof of a preference for Joe Biden of these companies from the very democratic Silicon Valley.

Asked by Republican Senator Joni Ernst on the ideological preferences of his employees, Mark Zuckerberg quipped by answering that the telecommuting due to Covid-19 will allow him to employ more diverse profiles.

But Democrats, who were quick to denounce a masquerade during the October hearing, also voiced concern over the proliferation of fake news and hate speech on these platforms.

Senator Christopher Coons notably sent a letter co-signed by a dozen of his colleagues, in which he asks the CEO of Facebook to limit hatred against Muslims on his platform.

Supervise moderation

The heart of the debate is a 1996 statute, Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act.

It exempts the platforms from any legal responsibility for the content that is shared there, and leaves them free to moderate the latter as they see fit.

Both Democrats and Republicans want to reform this text, but not in the same way.

Republicans believe he is investing too much power in social networks by letting them choose who has the right to live there.

"

," said Republican Senator John Cornyn.

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. "

On the contrary, Democrats believe that Facebook and Twitter should be forced to combat more aggressively the disinformation and hate speech exchanged there.

Opposite, the platforms warn against an overly restrictive legal framework, which they believe would undermine the freedom of expression of their users.

"

," insisted Jack Dorsey.

. ”

The CEO of Twitter is however not impervious to a reform of Section 230. Among his suggestions, more transparency on the moderation process, the possibility for users to easily appeal the decisions of moderators but also a framework of recommendations algorithmic.

Facebook boss Mark Zuckerberg also called for a clarification of the laws governing platforms.

Senators' questions were not limited to the framework provided for by the hearing.

The risks of addiction to social networks were thus addressed by Republican Senator Lindsey Graham, who notably recommended to Mark Zuckerberg and Jack Dorsey the viewing of the Netflix documentary

.

The use of users' personal data for electoral purposes, a sensitive issue since the Cambridge Analytica scandal, has also been questioned by Democratic senators.