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Zuckerberg: Facebook does not coordinate censorship policies with Twitter and Google

by Karen Faulkner, Worthy News Correspondent

(Worthy News) – At a congressional hearing Tuesday, Republican Senator Josh Hawley questioned Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg about information received from a whistle-blower that suggests the social media giant coordinates content moderation, including censorship policies, with Google and Twitter, Politico reports.

Zuckerberg testified before Republican and Democratic lawmakers that Facebook has no policy of coordinated content moderation with the other tech giants, although some level of communication between their respective staff members likely occurs.

During the course of the hearing, Sen. Hawley (R-Mo.) told Zuckerberg that a former Facebook employee had contacted his office to say there was coordinated content moderation between the tech giants.

According to the whistle-blower, Hawley said, there exists an internal platform called TASKS which Facebook “uses to coordinate projects including censorship.” Hawley then asked why Facebook, Twitter, and Google share information about harmful content on their platforms and suggested it appeared there is a coordinated effort to suppress conservative material.

Hawley asked Zuckerberg: “Does Facebook coordinate its content moderation policies or efforts in any way with Google or Twitter?” Answering, Zuckerberg said: “I would expect that some level of communication probably happens, but that’s different from coordinating what our policies are or responses in specific instances.”

Zuckerberg explained the companies “share signals” about harmful material such as terrorism, child exploitation and foreign election interference. “It’s important to be very clear that that is distinct from the content moderation policies that we or the other companies have,” Zuckerberg added. “Once we share intelligence or signals between the companies, each company makes its own assessment of the right way to address and deal with that information.” In regards to TASKS, Zuckerberg said this internal platform is “for people coordinating all kinds of work across the company.”

Together with Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey, Zuckerberg had been called, for the third time this year, to answer questions about possible abuses by the tech giants. Republicans focused their questions on the censorship of conservative voices by social media giants, and also raised the issue of efforts by Facebook and Twitter to limit pre-election reporting on President-elect Joe Biden’s son Hunter. For their part, Democrats were angered that falsehoods, including about a Trump re-election victory, have been allowed to propagate across the platforms, and they also raised concerns that the social media giants were driving competitors out of the market, Politico said.