Dorsey and Sandberg Head to Hill to Defend Social Platforms
*By Carlo Versano*
Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey and Facebook's operating chief Sheryl Sandberg head to Capitol Hill Wednesday, but the hearing may be more about who's absent rather than who's there.
"There's somebody missing from this conversation, and that would be Google," said Washington Post tech reporter Tony Romm.
Dorsey and Sandberg will answer to members of the Senate Intelligence Committee and address Russian interference before Dorsey goes back-to-back with the House in a hearing probing whether Twitter is actively censoring certain political views (Twitter has [said](https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/twitter-ceo-jack-dorsey-denies-company-censors-content-based-on-ideology) the platform has not). This will be the first time on the Hill for both executives.
"It's all happening at a time when lawmakers are increasingly concerned that social media giants haven't done enough to clean up their acts," Romm said Tuesday in an interview on Cheddar.
Google has not offered its CEO Sundar Pichai or Larry Page, the chief of parent company Alphabet. Google instead offered Kent Walker, a lower-rung senior VP of global affairs and chief legal officer, but the Senate committee [demured](https://www.wired.com/story/mark-warner-senate-committee-hearing-google-facebook-twitter/), so it's possible that Wednesday's hearings will produce a striking image of Sandberg and Dorsey sitting next to an empty chair.
Romm said he expects it will be a day of "huge PR hits" for Google.
"From the perspective of the Senate Intelligence Committee, that wasn't enough," said Romm of Google's offering.
Google, for its part, has argued that it's ready and willing to dispatch employees with the most knowledge about a given subject ー and in this case, that may mean Walker. But lawmakers want CEOs and decision-makers.
"That's where the buck stops," Romm said.
For full interview [click here](https://cheddar.com/videos/facebook-twitter-executives-to-face-capitol-hill-grilling).
Later today House Republicans will grill Snap, Tiktok and Youtube on how their products affect the mental health of teenagers. It comes after a report revealed that Facebook's photo sharing platform, Instagram, can be harmful to teen's mental health. Rishi Bharwani, Director of Partnerships and Policy, Accountable Tech joined Cheddar's Opening Bell to discuss.
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Mark Sebastian, CIO of Karman Line Capital & Founder of OptionPit.com, discusses the inflation headwinds impacting the market and how scrutiny over Facebook's practices could impact revenue for the social media giant going forward.
Just days after Facebook's Meta announcement, Microsoft announced that it will be launching its own mixed reality platform called Mesh through Teams. Jared Spataro, corporate vice president at Microsoft 365, joined Cheddar to provide some additional insight into this metaverse for businesses and how they can benefit from incorporating the tech. Among the features, Mesh users will be able to use cartoon-like avatars to interact with colleagues in an immersive virtual environment.
Cheddar gets a look at Curiosity Stream's 'Ancient Oceans'; Deep-sea biologist Heather Bracken-Grissom sheds light on some of the monsters that we can and cannot explain lurking in the darkness of the ocean's depths; Tim Janssen, CEO of Sofar Ocean, discusses Sofar Ocean's latest round of Series B funding, and how Sofar Ocean is helping connect all five oceans to help everything from climate change to the global shipping industry.
Tim Janssen, CEO of Sofar Ocean, joins 'Cheddar Reveals' to discuss Sofar Ocean's latest round of Series B funding, and how Sofar Ocean is helping connect all five oceans to help everything from climate change to the global shipping industry.
Bob Carter, EVP of sales at Toyota Motor North America, joined Cheddar to discuss the company's first all-electric SUV, the BZ4X, to be available in the United States in spring of 2022. Carter also went into the ongoing global semiconductor chip shortage that forced the automaker to slash production by 15 percent in November impacts on production and the other electric vehicle model being offered from its Lexus brand.
Ted Mortonson, Technology Strategist at Baird, joined Wake Up With Cheddar to break down the factors that led to weaker-than-expected earnings results for the two tech giants, and whether they can find solutions to these issues in the coming months.
Carlo and Baker cover the big races to watch on this off-cycle Election Day, the concrete pledges starting to come out of COP26, Jeffrey Epstein keeps causing CEOs to lose their jobs, and Ryan Murphy's TV hit that wasn't.
