Video Script:

Thank you Mr chairman in the late 19th century the heads of the biggest corporations in America the robber barons got together and they set rates they set prices they determined how they would control information flow they determined how they get rid of competition and I’ll be darned if we aren’t right back there again except for this time you’re the robber barons your companies are the most powerful companies in the world and I want to talk about how you’re coordinating together to control information in recent days my office was contacted by a Facebook whistleblower a former employee of the company with direct knowledge of the company’s content moderation practices and I want to start by talking about an internal platform called tasks that Facebook uses to coordinate projects including censorship the tasks platform allows Facebook employees to communicate about projects they’re working on together that includes Facebook censorship teams including the so-called Community well-being team the Integrity team and the hate speech engineering team who all use the task platform to discuss which individuals or hashtags or websites to ban now Mr Zuckerberg you’re familiar with the task platform aren’t you Senator we use the the task system for um I think it’s as you say for people coordinating all kinds of uh work across the company although I I’m not sure if I’d agree with the characterizations specifically um around content moderation that you gave well let’s get into that and let me see if we can refresh your memory and and provide Folks at home watching with an example here over my shoulder is an example it’s a screenshot of the task platform in use you’ll notice if the camera zoom in several references to election Integrity throughout on these lists of tasks again this is shared across Facebook sites Company locations by working groups what particularly intrigued me is that the platform reflects censorship input from Google and Twitter as well so Facebook as I understand it Facebook censorship teams communicate with their counterparts at Twitter and Google and then enter those company suggestions for censorship onto the task platform so that Facebook can then follow up with them and effectively coordinate their censorship efforts Mr Zuckerberg let me just ask you directly under oath now does Facebook coordinate it content moderation policies or efforts in any way with Google or Twitter Senator let me be clear about this uh we we do coordinate on and and share signals on security related topics uh so for example if there is um signal around a terrorist attack or around child exploitation imagery or around a foreign government uh creating an influence oper ation that is an area where the companies um do share signals about what they see but I think it’s important to be very clear that that is distinct from the content moderation policies uh that we or the other companies have where once we share intelligence or signals between the companies each company makes its own assessment of the right way to address uh and deal with that information well I’m talking about content moderation I’m talking about individuals websites hashtags phrases to ban is it your testimony that you do not communicate with Twitter or Google about content moderation about individuals websites phrases hashtags to ban just yes or no do you communicate with Twitter or Google about coordinating your policies in this way Senator we do not coordinate our policies do your Facebook content moderation teams communicate with their counterparts at Twitter or Google Senator I’m not aware of anything specific but I I think it would be probably pretty normal for people to talk to their their peers and colleagues in the industry it would be but you don’t do it no I I’m saying that I I’m not aware of any particular conversation but I would expect that some level of of communication probably happens but that is different from coordinating uh what our policies are or responses in specific instances well fortunately I understand that the task platform is searchable so will you provide a list of every mention of Google or Twitter from the tasks platform to this committee Senator that’s something that I can follow up with you and your team after on well yes or no I’m I’m sure you can follow up with the list but why don’t you commit while I’ve got you here under oath it’s so much better to do this under oath will you commit now to providing a list from the tasks platform of every mention of Google or Twitter Senator respectfully I’m I’m without having looked into this I’m not aware of any sensitivity that might exist around that so I don’t think it would be uh wise for me to commit to that right now but I would how many items on the task platform reflect that Facebook Twitter and Google are sharing information about websites or hashtags or platforms that they want to suppress Senator I I I do not know uh will you provide a list of every website and hashtag that Facebook content moderation teams have discussed Banning on the task platform Senator again I would be happy to follow up with you or your team uh to discuss further how we might move forward on that but will you commit to it here you Senator Cruz and Senator Lee both asked you for lists of individuals websites entities that have been subject to content moderation you express doubt about whether any such information exists but you’ve also now said that the task website you’ve you you’ve acknowledged the Tas platform exists that it is searchable so will you commit to providing the information you have logged on the task website about content moderation that your company has undertaken yes or no Senator I think it would be better to to follow up once I’ve had a chance to discuss with my team what any sensitivity around that would be that um that might prevent um the kind of sharing that you’re talking about but once I’ve done that I would be happy to follow up all right so you won’t you won’t commit to do it here we could of course subpoena this information but I’d much rather get it from you voluntarily but I think let everybody take note that that Mr Zuckerberg has now repeatedly refused to provide information that he knows that he has and has now acknowledged that he has that tasks has under off let me let me switch a different topic Mr Zuckerberg tell me about Sentra what is the Facebook internal tool called CRA uh Senator I’m not aware of any tool with that name M well mat let me see if this refreshes your memory there’s a demonstrative now over my shoulder Sentra is a tool that Facebook uses to track its users not just on Facebook but across the entire internet Centra taxs different profiles that a user visits their message recipients their linked accounts the pages they visit around the web that have Facebook buttons Sentra also uses behavioral data to monitor users accounts even if those accounts are registered under a different name and you can see a shot here screenshot provided to us of the central platform we’ve blocked out the user’s name in the interest of privacy although you can see this individual’s birth date and age when they first started using Facebook their last log in as well as all manner of trackingsm Zuckerberg how many accounts in the United States have been subject to review and shut down through Sentra Senator I do not know because I’m not familiar with the name of that tool I’m sure that we have tools that help us with our our platform and Community Integrity work um but I I am not familiar with that name do you have a tool that does exactly what I’ve described and that you can see here over my shoulder or are you saying that that doesn’t exist Senator I I’m saying that I’m not familiar with it and that I’d be happy to follow up uh and and uh get you and your team the information that that you would like on this um but I I’m I’m limited in what I can what what I’m familiar with and can share today it’s always amazing to me Mr chairman how many people before this committee suddenly develop Amnesia maybe it is something about the air in the room let me ask you this when a Facebook employee accesses a user’s private information like their private messages or their personally identifiable data is a record made of that Mr Zuckerberg sorry Senator can you repeat that is a record made of any time a Facebook employee accesses a user’s private information personally identify identifiable information for example messages is a record made anytime a Facebook employee does that Senator I believe so does it trigger an audit Senator I think sometimes it it may um how many audits have been conducted Senator I do not know the exact number of aits list um Senator we can follow up on on on that to to to see what would be useful here will you I’m I’m almost finished Mr chairman will you commit to giving us a list of the number of times Facebook employees have accessed users personal account information without their knowledge yes or no Senator we should follow up on what would be useful here it is of course in the operations of the company um if someone reports something uh sometimes necessary for for people at the company to go review and understand the context around uh what is happening when when someone reports something so uh this is fairly frequent and is is a matter of course we we do uh have security systems that can detect anomalous patterns to to flag um but we should follow up in more detail on on what uh you’re interested in Mr chairman I’ll just say in closing that what we have here is clear evidence of coordination between Twitter Google and Facebook Mr Zuckerberg knows he has the tools to track this but he won’t he either doesn’t remember or won’t commit to letting us see it we have evidence of Facebook tracking its own users all across the web Mr Zuckerberg won’t answer questions about it can’t remember the name isn’t sure if the tool is deployed in this way and won’t commit to giving us basic information I submit to you that this is both totally unacceptable and totally predictable because it is exactly what these tech companies have done to the American people and to Congress for years now which is why it is time we took action against these modern day Robert Barons thank you Mr chairman Senator Cruz thank you Mr chairman Facebook and Twitter and Google have massive power they have a monopoly on public discourse in the online Arena I will say it’s dismaying listening to the questions from our Democratic colleagues because consistently the message from Senate Democrats is for Faceook and Twitter and Google to censor more to abuse their power more to silence voices that Senate Democrats disagree with more that is very dangerous if we want to maintain a free and fair democracy if we want to maintain Free Speech there was a time when Democrats embraced and defended the principles of free speech there was a time when Democrats embraced and defended the principles of a free press and yet there’s an absolute Silence from Democrats speaking up for the Press Outlet censored by big Tech there’s an absolute silence for Democrats speaking out for the citizens silen by big Tech instead there is a demand use even more power to silence dissent and that’s a totalitarian Instinct that I think is very dangerous at the same time that big Tech exercises massive power it also enjoys massive corporate welfare through the effect of section 230 a special immunity from liability that nobody else gets Congress has given big Tech in effect a subsidy while they become some of the wealthiest corporations on the face of the planet Mr dorsy I want to focus primarily on Twitter and ask you initially is Twitter a publisher is Twitter a publisher yes no we are not we we distribute information so what is a publisher um uh an entity that is publishing under editorial guidelines and decisions well your answer happens to be contrary to the text of federal statute particular section 230 which defines an inter information content provider is any person or entity that is responsible in whole or in part for the creation or development of information provided through the internet or any other interactive Computer Service let me ask you was Twitter being a publisher when it censored the New York Post no we have very clear policies on um the conduct we enable on the platform um and if there’s a violation uh we take an enforcement action and people choose to commit to those policies and and to those terms of service except your policies are applied in a partisan and selective matter you claim it was hacked materials and yet you didn’t block the distribution of the New York Times story that alleged to talk about President Trump’s tax returns even though a federal statute makes it a crime to distribute someone’s tax returns without their consent you didn’t block any of that discussion did you our policy was focused on distribution of the actual hack material did did you block the discussion of the president’s tax return material and in the New York Times case uh we interpreted as reporting about the hack materials not did you block Edward Snowden when he he illegally released uh material um I I don’t have the answer for that the answer is no you have used this in a selective matter let me ask you were you being a publisher when you forced Politico and other journalistic out Outlet to to take down their tweets on a topic that you had deemed impermissible no we were enforcing our our policy and our terms of service so on October 15th Jake Sherman a reporter at Politico tweeted the following I tweeted a link to the New York Post story right after it dropped yesterday morning I immediately reached out to the Biden campaign to see if they had any answer I wish I’d given the story a closer read before tweeting it Twitter suspended me so you actually have a reporter reporting on a story asking the other side for comment and Twitter says hi Jake Sherman your account Jake Sherman has been locked for violating Twitter rules now what did the what did the Politico reporter do immediately tweets after that my goal was not to spread information well that’s a little worrisome just on an in and of itself my goal was to raise questions about the story oh my overlords in Silicon Valley I was attacking the New York Post you don’t understand I was attacking them as I did in subsequent tweets and see how the campaign was going to respond they later did respond and then not long after uh Jake Sherman comes back with my account is clearly no longer suspended I deleted the Tweet when Twitter is editing and censoring and silencing the New York Post the four the newspaper with the fourth highest circulation in the country and Politico one of the leading newspapers in the country is Twitter behaving as a publisher when it’s deciding what stories reporters are allowed to write and and publish and what stories they’re not no and that account was not suspended um it fell a file of the Hacked materials policy um we realized that there was an error in that policy and the enforcement I’m literally looking at the tweet from Twitter that says your account has been locked you’re you’re telling me that this is not an accurate that’s a lock that’s a lock and can be unlocked when you delete the I understand that you have the Star Chamber power your answer is always well once we silence s you we can choose to allow you to speak but you are engaged in publishing decisions let let me shift to a different topic Mr dorsy does voter fraud exist I I don’t know for a certain are you an expert in voter fraud no I’m not well why then is Twitter right now putting purported warnings on virtually any statement about voter fraud we’re we’re simply linking to a broader conversation so that people have more information no no you’re not you put up a page that says quote voter fraud of any kind is exceedingly rare in the United States that’s not linking to a broader conversation that’s taking a disputed policy position and you’re a publisher when you’re doing that you’re entitled to take a policy position but you don’t get to pretend you’re not a publisher and get a special benefit under Section 230 as a result that link is pointing to a broader conversation with tweets um from Publishers and and people all around the country Mr dorsy would the following statement violate Twitter’s policies quote absentee ballots Remain the largest source of potential voter fraud uh I imagine that we would label it so that people can have more context and how about this quote quote third-party organizations candidates and political activists uh voter fraud is particularly possible where quote third party organizations candidates and political party activists are involved in quote handling absentee ballots would you flag that as potentially misleading I don’t I don’t you know know the specifics of how we might enforce that but I imagine um a lot of these would would uh have a label pointing people to a bigger conversation brought well you’re right you would label them because you’ve taken the political position right now that voter fraud doesn’t exist I would note both of those Quotes come from the Carter Baker Commission on federal election reform that is democratic President Jimmy Carter and former Secretary of State James Baker and Twitter’s position is essentially voter fraud does not exist are you aware that just two weeks ago in the state of Texas a woman was charged with 10034 counts of election fraud are you aware of that I’m not aware of that if I tweeted that statement with a link to the indictment would you put a warning on it that says well the Democratic party position right now is voter fraud doesn’t exist I I I don’t think it’s useful to get into hypotheticals but I I don’t believe so you you don’t believe so well we’re going to test that because I’m going to tweet that and we’ll see what you put on it all right yesterday Mr dorsy you and I spent considerable amount of time on the phone and you said that you wanted to Embrace Transparency so I want to ask you I have asked Twitter I’ve asked Facebook multiple times how many times have you blocked Republican candidates for office there there tweets or their posts in in 2016 and 2018 and 2020 how many times have you blocked Democratic candidate uh candidates for office how many times have you blocked Republican office holders how many times have you blocked Democratic office holders Twitter has repeatedly refused to answer that question with specific hard data and and and and cataloging the examples in the interest of transparency which you said you want to embrace will you commit in this hearing right now to answer those questions in writing exactly what we want to do I’m sorry Mr dorsy I didn’t hear you that’s exactly what we’re we’re pushing for as we think about building upon 230 is yes you will answer those questions in writing transparency not just of outcomes but also our process as well is that a yes that you will answer those questions in writing we’ll we’ll certainly look into it and see what we can do and actually answer them and not give lawyerly double speak about why you you’re not going to give specifics answer them will you commit to this committee that you will answer those questions we’re going to work to answering broader transparency around outcomes all right that’s a no Mr Zuckerberg how about you will you commit that Facebook will answer those specific questions cataloging the number of instances in which Democrats in 16 18 and 20 have been silenced versus the number of instances in which Republicans have been silenced on Facebook Senator I’m not sure if we have that data available but I will follow up with you or your team okay I’m going to take that as a yes and I’m going to take Twitter we’ll see if it’s a yes or transparency is bogus and we don’t intend to provide it