*By Carlo Versano*
Google is "missing an opportunity" by not sending a top official to Capitol Hill next week to testify on election interference and censorship, Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.) told Cheddar's J.D. Durkin on Wednesday.
Facebook and Twitter are both sending C-Suite executives ー COO Sheryl Sandberg and CEO Jack Dorsey, respectively ー to testify in front of both chambers on Sept. 5.
So far, Google has said it will only dispatch its general counsel, Kent Walker.
"We need policy makers, not simply their lawyers," Warner said.
The heads of the top social and web platforms will head to the Hill to answer questions about how they are combating misinformation campaigns from state actors like Russia and Iran ahead of the midterm elections. Additionally, they are expected to face pointed questions about censorship ー a topic that President Trump has been pushing, most recently on Wednesday afternoon when he told reporters, "I think they treat Republicans and conservatives very unfairly" and such handling "may not be legal."
That echoes the sentiment of several Trump tweets Tuesday which suggested that Google News technology suppressed conservative views. Economic adviser Larry Kudlow said the White House would look into the matter, but many questioned Trump's statements on their face.
"The president doesn't really understand how search algorithms work," Warner said, noting that content is ranked in searches as a result of computer calculations, not human action.
The last time officials from Facebook, Twitter, and Google testified together ー last November on the topic of Russian hacking ー the reaction from lawmakers was largely negative. Since then, each company has shown a more proactive approach to the policing of their platforms.
Warner said he hopes next week's hearings will be forward-looking. "We want to look at solution sets" for these complex problems, he said.
The inventor of the nasal spray that can reverse an opioid overdose believes the $570 million judgment against Johnson & Johnson shows that states are taking the crisis "seriously."
On the back of a groundbreaking partnership with data heavyweights Deloitte and Nielsen, cannabis industry intelligence company Headset on Monday announced the launch of its real time analytics tool in the province of Alberta, marking its official debut in the Canadian market. Stakeholders anticipate the data Headset Insights generates ー first in Alberta, and eventually across all of Canada ー will serve as a road map for companies outside of cannabis looking to penetrate the industry, and for Canadian cannabis companies as the market grows more diverse and competitive.
An Oklahoma judge ruled that Johnson & Johnson pay over $570 million in damages — a far cry from the $17 billion requested — for causing the opioid crisis in the Sooner state.
The U.S. president reiterated his position that Russia should be invited back into the coalition of the world's largest economies despite the lingering issue of Russia's occupation of Ukrainian territory.
Speaking from the G7 summit in Biarritz, France, Trump said that Chinese negotiators had called U.S. officials and requested a new round of talks.
Gravy Analytics, a location-based marketing technology company, analyzed the smartphone data of people who attended the 111 solo Democratic presidential candidate events held in June and July.
The trade war between the U.S. and China escalated throughout the day Friday, culminating with President Trump announcing that the U.S. will significantly hike tariffs on nearly all Chinese imports. The decision came in response to China proclaiming earlier in the day that it would hit $75 billion worth of U.S. goods with new retaliatory tariffs.
From Wall Street to Silicon Valley, these are the top stories that moved markets and had investors, business leaders, and entrepreneurs talking this week on Cheddar.
Federal Reserve chairman Jerome Powell on Friday said the U.S. central bank was prepared to take action in the event of a global economic downturn. Powell, however, was tightlipped on whether the Fed would initiate another quarter-point interest rate cut as many investors had hoped.
Read Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell's prepared remarks from his speech Friday at the Economic Symposium held in Jackson Hole, Wyo.
