Facebook, Google, And Twitter To Testify Before Congress About Terrorist Content On June 26

Dhir Acharya - Jun 22, 2019

The hearing, at the same time, will look at misinformation spread across social media, according to a Wednesday report from Bloomberg Law.

Giant tech firms Google, Facebook, and Twitter have a scheduled testimony for later this month, before the Committee on Homeland and Security, United States, where they will discuss terrorist content on the Internet. The hearing, at the same time, will look at misinformation spread across social media, according to a Wednesday report from Bloomberg Law.

The testimony comes after the New Zealand shooting which took place in March and went live on social media platforms Facebook and YouTube. At that time, the Committee asked Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, and Microsoft to delete such violent content the fastest they could.

Facebook-and-Twitter-will-testify-before-the-Congress-1 — Facebook and Twitter will testify before the Congress

According to CNET, Facebook confirmed that the company will testify at the hearing, scheduled for 7 a.m. PT, June 26. Also, the Committee may livestream the hearing, called Examining Social Media Companies' Efforts to Counter Online Terror Content and Misinformation, on its website. Those who will testify on June 26 include head of global policy management at Facebook - Monika Bickert, global director of information policy at Google - Derek Slater, and global senior strategist for public policy at Twitter - Nick Pickles.

Twitter didn’t respond immediately to a comment request.

Terrorist-content-on-social-media-has-become-alarming-recently-2 — Terrorist content on social media has become alarming recently

After the Christchurch mosque shooting in New Zealand, Facebook and Twitter, along with several tech companies, signed the Christchurch Call. Others signing this document are YouTube, Microsoft, Amazon, Qwant, and Daily Motion, and several governments namely Sweden, Spain, Senegal, Norway, the Netherlands, Jordan, Japan, Italy, Ireland, India, Indonesia, the European Commission, France, Germany, New Zealand, the UK, Australia, and Canada.

Led by Jacinda Ardern – the Prime Minister of New Zealand, and Emmanuel Macron – the President of France, the Christchurch Call is a plan for preventing terrorists from posting extremist content on the Internet, and for increasing transparency in the algorithms used by tech firms as well as better detect and remove such content. The US didn’t sign the call.

Google said on May 2 that as of this year, it reviewed more than 1 million videos that were under suspicion of terrorism.