America is known for many things one of the key things that makes it different is that people’s voices are heard a lot. Of late, there have been some issues hurled by the common people in the country about the Tech giants like Google, Facebook and Twitter about their role in creating some problems apart from giving space to raise their voices on their respective platforms. This has finally brought the top office executives of these companies. These companies are slammed for spreading misinformation through their platforms to technology addiction along with plaguing other issues by emerging as the biggest online platforms.
For all these reasons, they were grilled by the lawmakers and the US Congress people. These places were seen hammering the three executives about the said issues thus grilling the top executives of these companies like Mark Zuckerberg from Facebook, Sundar Pichai of Google and Jack Dorsey from Twitter. All the trio were present before the lawmakers for the first time together ever since the Capitol Hill was attacked this January when the fans of the outgoing president Donald Trump instigated to raise their voice on some of these platforms this year. Also, they had to face issues like spreading fake news about COVID 19 in the US along with playing a different role in the US elections this time. Some of the other issues that created problems include the disruption during the election times. It was a five hours hearing of the trio before the members of Congress as they were seen interrupting the technology executives.
Some of the key issues that were raised during the hearing include the following:
Children and screen time – The platforms were alleged that they play a role in engaging people including the children in different activities in different online games and other stuff. They claimed that how these platforms are creating a big problem in getting the children engaged in something unworthy and futile things that should not come in their lives. They claimed that the tech companies are leaving no stone unturned to keep things engaged to the children thus becoming a big destruction in some way or the other way.
The next issue was the section 230 that comes under the Communications Decency Act of 1996. It is a law that secures people and companies from different liability from a number of content posted by a number of users on these platforms. The lawmakers were tough on this issue as well when they said that these companies are getting black checks on doing nothing except the fact that they are not limiting the spread of fake news and disinformation, claimed the chairperson of the group based at the New Jersey Democrat.
Lastly, the companies were also faced tough times for their roles in the recent riots created in the Capitol Hill in the national capital. They claimed that the supporters of the former minister got signals and orders from one of the online platforms and that they were not able to regulate them thus allowing everyone to shoot at the political place.