New Senate Judiciary hearing thread. CEOs of Facebook and Twitter. @LindseyGrahamSC rightly doesn't want govt regulating info on social platforms but concerned about their power. So yes, I agree, an antitrust issue specifically with Facebook and ties directly to data policy.

Thank you to @SenBlumenthal for noting Google has (once again) been given a pass by not testifying today despite its doing even less. He notes how Facebook has "built terrifying tools of persuasion and manipulation...profiting off strip-mining data about our private lives."

Very pleased to already see some connecting the dots of the downstream harms (censorship and conservative bias for Republicans, suppression and privacy for Democrats) to the upstream concern of antitrust. I testified similarly to same committee last year. https://www.judiciary.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/Kint%20Testimony.pdf

Twitter really deserves praise. Here Twitter’s CEO, a respected entrepreneur and product mind, directly points to algorithmic amplification as the highest impact concern. Watch Facebook CEO then shuffle at this idea since it touches the core of Facebook’s entire business model.

Back to antitrust. @SenBlumenthal asks Zucka about whether Facebook used acquired Onavo surveillance data in its decision to acquire WhatsApp. Zucka confirms usage as it’s in publicly available documents. FTC antitrust lawsuit must come soon. Blumenthal mentions company breakup.

This is a super good thread to accompany testimony today. Twitter and Dorsey really deserve praise. Even the ack of their lack of a policy for retroactive enforcement decisions where there is plenty of reporting on how Facebook has given into its lobbyists over political risk. https://twitter.com/jack/status/1328721286474788865

And @JohnCornyn cites Brandeis about more speech (sunlight being the best disinfectant). Dorsey rightly points out that their labels and enforcement encourage even more speech and their labels are also more speech not less avoiding take-downs.