Facebook, Twitter to face new US probe over censorship concern
San Francisco, Sep 6 : After Wednesday's congressional hearings, Facebook and Twitter will now face questions from the Justice Department (DOJ) over allegations of political bias, an issue flagged by US President Donald Trump.
In a meeting in September, US Attorney General Jeff Sessions, along with state attorneys general, would look into whether Facebook and Twitter are "intentionally stifling the free exchange of ideas on their platforms", CNET reported on Wednesday.
The DOJ announced the meeting on a day when Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey and Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg appeared before the US Congress, admitting to the lawmakers that they were "too slow to act" and "ill-prepared" to tackle foreign interference on their platforms.
According to The Washington Post, Sandberg told the US Senate Intelligence Committee that they were too slow to spot this and too slow to act. "That's on us."
The social networking platforms attracted criticism for being vulnerable to Russia-linked influence campaigns. Trump has accused Google, Facebook and Twitter of trying to "silence" conservative voices.
Appearing before the House Committee on Energy and Commerce on Wednesday in a hearing on online censorship of conservative opinions and misinformation activities ahead of the 2018 mid-term elections, Dorsey said Twitter will remain an "impartial" "global town square", and it does "not shadow-ban anyone based on political ideology".
"To serve the public conversation, Twitter is incentivised to keep all voices on the platform," he said.
Twitter has constantly denied the claims by Republicans that conservative accounts were shadow-banned or their opinions were censored on the platform.
Earlier in the day, Dorsey testified before the Senate Intelligence Committee on Russian meddling in the 2016 US election. Following the meeting, Twitter shares fell six per cent on Wednesday, CNBC reported.
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Will SC conduct further inquiry, asks Surjewala after Pegasus spyware case verdict in US
New Delhi, Dec 22: Congress general secretary Randeep Surjewala on Sunday claimed that the Pegasus spyware case verdict in the US proved how 300 WhatsApp numbers of Indians were targeted and asked if the Supreme Court would now conduct a further inquiry in view of the judgment.
Surjewala shared a media report which said that, for the first time, a court in the US had held Israel's NSO Group liable for its intrusive spyware Pegasus.
"The Pegasus spyware case verdict proves how 300 WhatsApp numbers of Indians were targeted in the illegal spyware racket," Surjewala said in a post on X.
He said it was time for the Narendra Modi government to answer who the 300 names targeted were.
"Who are the two Union ministers? Who are the three opposition leaders? Who is the constitutional authority? Who are the journalists? Who are the business persons? What information was retrieved by the BJP government and agencies? How was it used - misused and to what consequence?" the Congress leader asked.
He also questioned if appropriate criminal cases would now be lodged against the political executive or officers in the present government and the company owning NSO.
"Will the Supreme Court take note of the judgment of the US court in Meta v/s NSO? Will the Supreme Court proceed to make public the report of the Committee of Technical Experts on Pegasus Spyware, submitted to it in 2021-22?" Surjewala said.
Questioning if the Supreme Court would now conduct a further inquiry in view of the judgment affirming the targeting of 1,400 WhatsApp numbers, including 300 from India, he asked, "Will the Supreme Court now ask Meta to submit to itself the 300 names to meet the ends of justice in the Pegasus case?"
"Shouldn't Facebook (now Meta) now have responsibility to release the names of 300 Indians targeted by Pegasus, considering WhatsApp and Facebook have the biggest subscriber base in India and they have 'duty of care and disclosure' to its clients in India?" the Congress leader asked.
