Top executives from Meta, Twitter, YouTube and TikTok just wrapped up a three-hour hearing before the Senate Homeland Security Committee. The hearingwhich includes Meta CPO Chris Cox, YouTube CPO Neal Mohan, TikTok COO Vanessa Pappas and Twitter’s CEO of Consumer Products (known as “Bluebird”), aiming to focus on how their services affect other platforms. national security issues.
Notably, the hearing is only the second time TikTok and YouTube representatives have appeared at such a hearing – Meta and Twitter executives have been summoned before Congress more often – and the first time. The first is dedicated to security. The hearing also comes a day after Twitter’s former chief security officer turned whistleblower told another Senate committee that the company had been warned earlier by the FBI that it had on its payroll. However, not a single senator on the Homeland Security Committee asked Sullivan about the allegation.
To be clear, Sullivan is unlikely to have come up with a definite answer. When asked about whistleblower Peiter Zatko’s claim that Twitter lied to the FTC, he only said that “Twitter opposes the allegations.” But it’s still a bit shocking that the issue wasn’t raised in a hearing dedicated to the impact of social media platforms on the nation. Guard.
However, lawmakers spent considerable time questioning Pappas about TikTok’s connections to China, which has long raised suspicions from lawmakers on both sides.
At one point, Senator Josh Hawley had a heated exchange with Pappas about whether the company had employees in China who were members of the Chinese Communist Party. “We have said many times, Senator, that we have Chinese engineers working in China,” Pappas said. “I don’t think there’s any background here that can tell what you’re talking about as it relates to an individual’s political party.” She then added that the company’s leadership team is based in the US and Singapore.
Pappas was also asked about a that TikTok user data has been accessed multiple times by employees based in China. She said “those allegations were not found” and emphasized “strict access control measures” and the company’s work .
TikTok’s COO was also asked about the app’s use . Pappas told Senator Kristen Sinema: “We do not use any kind of facial, voice, sound or body recognition to identify an individual. She added that facial recognition is used for augmented reality effects in creator videos.
There was little discussion of other security-related issues, including social media companies’ handling of domestic extremism. Committee Chairman, Senator Gary Peters highlighted Cox and Mohan and why Meta and YouTube didn’t crack down on QAnon faster. Both sides questioned by focusing on their current policies. Other lawmakers have chosen to spend time questioning companies about their handling of vaccine misinformation during the pandemic and other content moderation issues.
And, as with previous hearings, executives are often reluctant to give concrete answers even to seemingly simple questions. Peters repeatedly asked each CEO how many engineers each company had – a question he said they were informed about in advance – but no one gave a direct answer. “Honestly, I’m disappointed that product managers — you all have a prominent position at the table where business decisions are made — weren’t more prepared,” Peters said. “Your companies continue to actually avoid you sharing certain very important information with us.”
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