*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.
Though FAANG stocks hit an all-time high last week, their gains could be undermined by the Trump administration's trade stand-off with China that could soon widen into the technology sector, says Jason Ware, chief investment officer at Albion Financial Group.
The country's highest court on Tuesday ruled in favor of the travel ban the Trump administration attempted to implement last year. The court rejected the argument that the policy exceeded the president's authority and that it discriminated against Muslims.
Letting women drive will make them "good workers and consumers," says Hiba Zayadin, the acting Saudi researcher at Human Rights Watch. But "the power structures and systems that keep women as second-class citizens" remain prevalent., she tells Cheddar.
Police shootings have persisted in America for the last several decades but now personal video footage is holding officers accountable, says O'Donnell. The MSNBC host is re-publishing his book "Deadly Force" that chronicles the 1975 police shooting of an unarmed black man that was criticized as "basically a murder".
The president's consistent attacks on media outlets like CNN is "very, very good for business." But Trump has avoided directing his wrath at MSNBC since taking the White House, because the network "is much higher rated" and "he would prefer people to watch CNN," which features many pro-Trump speakers, says O'Donnell.
The MSNBC host explains what happened leading up to the moment when his co-worker, Rachel Maddow, broke down in tears on air while covering the border crisis. O'Donnell tells Cheddar that if he had to report the story on tender age shelters, he might have cried too.
Markets plunged on Monday as President Trump escalated already-tense trade relations with China and investors saw the first sign of American manufacturers feeling the impact of the Trump administration’s increasingly protectionist stance.
Melania Trump received a lot of criticism for wearing a jacket with the phrase "I DON'T REALLY CARE, DO U?" scrawled across the back on her way to meet with migrant children at the Texas-Mexico border. The bizarre choice, at such a heated moment, may have been "a very calculated move," said Vox reporter Rebecca Jennings.
Citigroup CEO Michael Corbat weighs in on the backlash over family separation at the border and the need for immigration reform.
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The country's top court on Thursday ruled that states can force online retailers to charge sales taxes on purchases even if they don't have a physical presence in the state. D.A. Davidson's Tom Forte says Amazon may actually end up benefiting from that rule.
