Mark Zuckerberg, Sundar Pichai and Jack Dorsey are questioned about recommendation systems at a joint House Energy and Commerce subcommittee hearing on 25 March 2021. Members of both parties raise concerns, on different grounds: the majority’s opening statements press the platforms on disinformation and the limits of self-regulation, while the minority’s press them on viewpoint censorship and on where recommendation algorithms lead children.
Congress holds algorithmic accountability hearings
Event Not yet reviewed This page has not yet been through the automated review pipeline.Congressional committees question platform executives about recommendation algorithms, including a joint House Energy and Commerce hearing on 25 March 2021 with the chief executives of Facebook, Google and Twitter.
Sources
- 01.
U.S. House Committee on Energy and Commerce, Subcommittees on Communications and Technology and on Consumer Protection and Commerce. Disinformation Nation: Social Media's Role in Promoting Extremism and Misinformation. (2021). Committee repository record for the joint hearing of Thursday 25 March 2021 before the Subcommittee on Communications and Technology and the Subcommittee on Consumer Protection and Commerce, with witness list, submitted testimony and members' opening statements. Mark Zuckerberg, Sundar Pichai and Jack Dorsey are listed as the witnesses. This is the datable hearing this entry is anchored to.
- 02.
U.S. House Committee on Energy and Commerce. Opening Statement of Rep. Janice D. Schakowsky, Chair of the Subcommittee on Consumer Protection and Commerce. (2021). As prepared for delivery, 25 March 2021. One of the two grounds represented here: that 'self-regulation has come to the end of its road', and that the platforms are 'hotbeds of misinformation and disinformation'.
- 03.
U.S. House Committee on Energy and Commerce. Opening Statement of Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers, Republican Leader of the Committee on Energy and Commerce. (2021). As prepared for delivery, 25 March 2021. The other ground: that the platforms 'censor political viewpoints you disagree with' and that 'I've monitored where your algorithms lead them', addressed to harms to children. Cited together with the Schakowsky statement to establish that the concerns raised were not the same on both sides.
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2021
Congress holds algorithmic accountability hearings
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