Tech CEOs Head to the Hill, Again
The Lawfare Podcast
The Lawfare Institute
4.7 • 6.4K Ratings
🗓️ 1 April 2021
⏱️ 53 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
This week on Arbiters of Truth, the Lawfare Podcast’s miniseries on our online information ecosystem, Evelyn Douek and Quinta Jurecic spoke with Issie Lapowsky, a senior reporter at the tech journalism publication Protocol. They discussed last week’s hearing before the House Energy and Commerce Committee with the CEOs of Facebook, Google and Twitter—the first time the companies had been called to testify on the Hill after the Capitol riot, which focused public attention on the content moderation policies of tech platforms when it comes to domestic extremism. The hearing produced some interesting takeaways, but also a lot of moments when the CEOs were awkwardly forced to answer complicated questions with a simple "yes" or "no" answer.
They also discussed Issie’s reporting on how tech companies have struggled to figure out how to address far-right extremism in the United States as opposed to Islamist extremism. And they talked about Section 230 reform and what it’s like reporting on the tech space.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | The following podcast contains advertising to access an ad-free version of the LawFair |
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| 0:25.6 | no bull and the aftermath. |
| 0:30.9 | Part of not taking direct orders from the government means that in some cases, maybe rare |
| 0:41.0 | cases, but in some cases, in a certain case here, you can see them acting a little bit |
| 0:46.0 | faster and a little bit more forcefully because maybe they have the insight that government |
| 0:51.8 | doesn't have or isn't looking for about how dangerous these groups are becoming. |
| 0:56.8 | So I think you're absolutely right that it's a cascade of failures. |
| 1:01.4 | They were law enforcement failures and failures on the part of the tech companies to prevent |
| 1:06.6 | these movements from growing and organizing. |
| 1:10.7 | I'm Quinted Jurassic and this is the LawFair podcast April 1, 2021. |
| 1:18.0 | We're bringing you another episode of our Arbordos of Truth podcast, the LawFair podcast |
| 1:22.2 | is a mini-series on our online information ecosystem. |
| 1:25.8 | Today, Evelyn Duac and I spoke with Issy Lapowski, a senior reporter at the tech journalism |
| 1:31.7 | publication protocol. |
| 1:33.8 | We invited Issy on the show to discuss last week's hearing before the House Energy and |
| 1:38.7 | Commerce Committee with the CEOs of Facebook, Google and Twitter. |
| 1:43.4 | The first time the companies had been called to testify on the Hill after the Capitol |
| 1:47.0 | Riot, which focused public attention on the content moderation policies of tech platforms |
| 1:52.5 | when it comes to domestic extremism. |
... |
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