*By Carlo Versano*
Well, that happened.
Far-right conspiracy theorist and verbal bomb-thrower Alex Jones crashed both the Senate and House hearings on big tech Wednesday, commandeering media attention and at one point nearly getting into an altercation with Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL).
Jones told Cheddar's J.D. Durkin that he was there to "face my accusers." Jones, who founded the conspiracy site InfoWars, was booted off Facebook and YouTube for peddling hate speech, though he remains active on Twitter.
His comments to Cheddar came on a marathon day for big tech on Capitol Hill. Facebook's COO Sheryl Sandberg and Twitter's founder and CEO Jack Dorsey addressed the Senate Intelligence Committee Wednesday morning, and Dorsey testified for the House Energy and Commerce Committee in the afternoon. Both sessions were meant to discuss how the respective platforms can better protect billions of users against fake news, propaganda, harassment, and hate speech.
Both executives said they were taking specific steps to address the spread of misinformation. For example, Facebook now demotes articles rated as "false" by third-party fact checkers, warns users before they share such posts, and promotes related articles that are deemed more accurate, Sandberg said.
Still, they admitted their efforts came too late.
"We were too slow to spot this and too slow to act," Sandberg said during the Senate hearing, addressing Russian attempts to interfere in the 2016 U.S. presidential election.
And Dorsey said Twitter was "unprepared and ill-equipped" to defend users against nefarious actors that have gamed the platform's services.
Investors were seemingly unimpressed by the execs' statements ー shares of Facebook, Twitter, and Dorsey's other company Square were all down along with the broader social media and tech space Wednesday.
Dorsey and Sandberg agreed that fake accounts are the root of many of their problems. Both platforms, the executives said, are now proactively shutting down millions of accounts a week. Sandberg also added that Facebook employs 20,000 security and safety personnel who work 24 hours a day.
The Senate hearing got off to a collegial start, as Sens. Richard Burr (R-NC) and Mark Warner (D-VA) expressed their appreciation for the steps Facebook and Twitter have taken to regain control of their platforms. Though Burr added, "I'm not sure your success is the big story here."
Two of Silicon Valley's most respected execs sitting side-by-side on Capitol Hill was a potent visual ー even more so because of who was absent. The committee rejected Google's offer to send its chief legal counsel, and neither the company nor its parent Alphabet sent their CEOs or chairmen.
Instead, an empty chair joined Sandberg and Dorsey on the dais.
A new poll finds most U.S. adults are worried about health care becoming more expensive.
The White House budget office says mass firings of federal workers have started in an attempt to exert more pressure on Democratic lawmakers as the government shutdown continues.
President Donald Trump says “there seems to be no reason” to meet with Chinese leader Xi Jinping as part of an upcoming trip to South Korea after China restricted exports of rare earths needed for American industry. The Republican president suggested Friday he was looking at a “massive increase” of import taxes on Chinese products in response to Xi’s moves. Trump says one of the policies the U.S. is calculating is "a massive increase of Tariffs on Chinese products coming into the United States." A monthslong calm on Wall Street was shattered, with U.S. stocks falling on the news. The Chinese Embassy in Washington hasn't responded to an Associated Press request for comment.
Most members of the Federal Reserve’s interest-rate setting committee supported further reductions to its key interest rate this year, minutes from last month’s meeting showed.
From Wall Street trading floors to the Federal Reserve to economists sipping coffee in their home offices, the first Friday morning of the month typically brings a quiet hush around 8:30 a.m. eastern, as everyone awaits the Labor Department’s monthly jobs report.
The Supreme Court is allowing Lisa Cook to remain as a Federal Reserve governor for now.
Rep. John Moolenaar has requested an urgent briefing from the White House after Trump supported a deal giving Americans a majority stake in TikTok.
A new report finds the Department of Government Efficiency’s remaking of the federal workforce has battered the Washington job market and put more households in the metropolitan area in financial distress.
A new poll finds U.S. adults are more likely than they were a year ago to think immigrants in the country legally benefit the economy. That comes as President Donald Trump's administration imposes new restrictions targeting legal pathways into the country. The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research survey finds Americans are more likely than they were in March 2024 to say it’s a “major benefit” that people who come to the U.S. legally contribute to the economy and help American companies get the expertise of skilled workers. At the same time, perceptions of illegal immigration haven’t shifted meaningfully. Americans still see fewer benefits from people who come to the U.S. illegally.
Shares of Tylenol maker Kenvue are bouncing back sharply before the opening bell a day after President Donald Trump promoted unproven and in some cases discredited ties between Tylenol, vaccines and autism. Trump told pregnant women not to use the painkiller around a dozen times during the White House news conference Monday. The drugmaker tumbled 7.5%. Shares have regained most of those losses early Tuesday in premarket trading.
