We will come to order, please. Together the cometty gathers to discuss this meeting will come to order. Thank you. This committee gathers to discuss what the Technology Industry is doing to remove sleep. And extremist content from their platforms. This is a matter of serious importance to the safety and wellbeing of our nations communities. I sincerely hope we can engage in a collaborative discussion about what more can be done within the jurisdiction of this committee to keep our communities safe from those wishing to do us harm. To do us harm. Representatives social Worlds LargestMedia Companies. Several r from representatives. Over the past two decades the ups has led the world in the and opment of social media other services that allow people to connect with one another. Open Platform Providers like google, twitser, and facebook and roducts like Instagram Youtube have dramatically changed the away we communicate have been used positively minded groupslike to come together and shed light of power and abuses matter ut the world no how great the service these latforms provide, they can be used for evil at home and abroad. On august 3, 2019, 20 People Killed and more than two dozen were injured in a mass hooting at an el paso shopping center. Police have said that they are easonably confident that the a pect posted a manifesto to website called eight chan. Prior to the shooting. The moderators removed the users l post, though continued sharing copies. Following the shooting trump called on social Media Companies to work in state ship with local, and federal agencies to develop ools that can detect mass shooters before they strike. About inly hope we talk that challenge today. Sadly the el paso shooting representative. On march 15, 51 were killed and at shootings at two mosques in Christ Church new zealand. Perpetrator filmed the attacks using the body camera and life streamed the footage to facebook followers. Who began to reload the footage sites. Book and other access to the footage quickly stated that cebook ofremoved 1. 5 million videos the massacre within 24 hours of the attack. 1. 2 million views of the videos blocked before they could be uploaded, like the el paso the Christ Church shooter also uploaded a to chan. The 2016 shooting at the pulse nightclub in orlando, florida, 49 and injured 53 more the orlando shooter was radicalized by isis and other jihadists propaganda sources. Nline days after the attack the f. B. I. Stated that investigators were highly confident that the shooter was selfradicalized through the internet. According to an official in the investigation, analysis of the shooters revealed thatices he had consumed a hell of a lot jihadists propaganda, videos,ng isis beheading shootings of family members of vems brought a federal lawsuit social media three platforms under the antiterrorism act. Circuit dismissed the lawsuit on grounds that this was an act of international terrorism. 3. 2 billion Internet Users this committee recognizes he challenge facing social Media Companies and Online Platforms. Act and remove content threatening violence from their sites. Are questions about whether there are questions users racking of the online activity. Individualsade an privacy . Due process, or violate constitutional rights. Removal of c hreatening content may also impact an Online Platforms ability to detect warning signs. Offers t amendment strong protections against restricting certain speech. Undeniably adds to the complexity of our task. Will these witnesses speak to these challenges, and ow their companies are navigating these challenges. Connected internet society, misinformation, fake viral eep fakes, and online conspiracy theories have become the norm. This hearing is an opportunity witnesses to discuss how their platforms go about content and material that threatens violence, and potentially and immediate danger to the public. Also our witnesses will discuss how their content moderation processes work. This includes addressing how human review or technological are employed to remove or limit violence contest. With law ion enforcement officials at the federal, state and local levels protecting our neighborhoods and communities. We would like to know how coordinating with Law Enforcement, when violent or content is identified. And finally, i hope witnesses ill discuss how congress can assist in ongoing efforts to emove content promoting violence from Online Platforms and whether best practices or of conduct in this area would help increase line. Y both online and off so i look forward to hearing testimonies from our witnesses. Engage in a constructive discussion about otential solutions to a pressing issue. And im delighted at this point o recognize my friend and Ranking Member, senator cantwell. Chairman and mr. For holding this hearing. Across the country were seeing a surge of cing hate. As a result we need to think much heard and the tools and to urce that is we have combat this problem online and offline. While the First Amendment to the constitution protects free speech, speech that incites violence is not protected and should review and trengthen laws to make sure we stop the online behavior that does incite violence. In testimony before the Senate Committee in july the federal Bureau Investigator from f. B. I. Said that white supremist violence is on the rise. He said the f. B. I. Takes this extremely seriously, and has made over a hundred year. S so far this were seeing in my state over the last several years, weve shooting at the Jewish Community center in shooting of a sheikh in kent, washington, a bombing attempt at the Martin Luther parade in spokane and over the last year weve seen a rise cregs of both synagogues and mosques. The rise in hate across the also led to multiple life shootings, including the congregation in pittsburgh, the pulse nightclub n orlando and the walmart in el paso. The shooter at one high school postings said d the image of himself and guns instagram, prior to the attack on his fellow killer in el paso the published a white supremist and immigration manifesto my colleague just mentioned the streaming of live content church to the christ shooting. Fihorrific incident that there. Ed promoting violence against uslims these human lives were all cut short by deep hatred and extremism that weve more problem. E this is a particular problem on the dark web where we see websites, like the host f 247, 365 hate rallies, adding Technology Tools to mainstream websites to stop the spread of these dark websites is start but this needs to be i believe calling on theve and department of justice to make sure that we are working across the board on an international basis with companies as well to fight this issue is an important thing to be done. We dont want to push people off social media platforms only for them to then be on the dark web where we are finding less of them. We need to do more at the department of justice to shut and these dark web sites, social Media Companies need to work with us to make sure were are doing this. I do want to mention, just last week, as there was discussion in washington about initiatives, the state of washington has passed three gun initiatives by closing of the people, loopholes related to background checks, gun sales and extreme person laws, voted by a majority in our state and successfully passed. Representatives from various companies of all sizes in the Technology Industry sent a letter supporting passage of bills requiring background checks, so very much appreciate that and your support of extreme person laws to keep guns out of the hands of people who a court has determined are dangerous with the possession of that. This morning we look forward to asking you ways in which we can better fight these issues. I want us to think about ways in which we can all work together, to address these issues. I feel that working together, these are successful tools we can deploy in trying to fight extremism that exists online. Thank you, mr. Chairman, for the hearing. Thank you, very much. Oralwe will hear testimony from our four witnesses, and your entire statements will be submitted to the record without objection. We ask you to limit comments at this point to five minutes. Ms. Bickert, you are recognized. Thank you for being here. Ms. Bickert thank you, chairman wicker, Ranking Member cantwell, distinguished members of the committee. Thank you for the opportunity to be here today, and to answer your questions and explain our efforts in these areas. My name is monika bickert, facebook Vice President for Global Policy management and counterterrorism. I am responsible for our rules around content on facebook and our companys response to terrorists wouldbe attempts to use our services. On behalf of everyone at facebook, i would like to begin by exposing my sympathy and solidarity with the victims, families, communities and everybody affected by the recent, terrible attacks across the country. In the face of such acts, we remain committed to assisting Law Enforcement and standing with the community against hate and violence. We are thankful to provide a way for those affected by this horrific violence to communicate with loved ones, organize events for people to gather and grieve, raise money to help support communities, and begin to heal. Our mission is to give people the power to connect with one another and build community, but we know people need to be safe in order to build that community, and that is why we have rules in place against harmful conduct, including hate speech and inciting violence. Our goal is to ensure facebook is both a place where people can access themselves, but where they are also safe express themselves, but where they are also safe. We are not aware of any connection between the recent attacks and our platform, but we certainly recognize we all have a role to play in keeping our community safe. Thats why we remove content that encourages realworld harm. This includes content that is involving violence or incitement, promoting or publicizing crime, coordinating harmful activities or encouraging suicide or self injury. We dont allow any individuals or organizations who proclaim a violent mission, advocate for violence, or are engaged in violence to have any presence on facebook, even if they are talking about something unrelated. This includes organizations and individuals involved in or advocating for terror activities, domestic and international, organized hate, including white supremacy, white separatism or white nationalism, or other violence. We also dont allow any content posted by anyone that praises or supports these individuals or organizations or their actions. When we find content that violates our standards, we remove it promptly. We also disable accounts when we see severe or repeated violations, and we work with Law Enforcement directly when we believe theres a risk of physical harm or a direct threat to public safety. While theres always room for improvement, we already remove millions of pieces of content every year for violating our policies, and much of that is before anyone has reported it to us. Our efforts to improve our enforcement of these policies are focused on three areas. First, building new Technical Solutions that allow us to proactively identify content that violates our policies. Second, investing in people who can help us implement these policies. At facebook, we have over 30,000 people across the Company Working on safety and security efforts. This includes over 350 people whose primary focus is counterhate and counterterrorism. Third, Building Partnerships with other companies, Civil Society, researchers, and governments, so that together we can come up with shared solutions. Of the work we have done to make facebook a hostile place for people advocating violence, but the work will never be complete. We know bad actors will continue to attempt to skirt detection with more sophisticated efforts, and we are dedicated to continuing to advance our progress. We look forward to working with the committee, regulators, others in the Tech Industry and Civil Society to continue this progress. Again, i appreciate the opportunity to be here today, and look forward to your questions. Thank you. Thank you very much. Wicker, Ranking Member cantwell, members of the committee, thank you for the opportunity to discuss these important issues. Twitter has publicly committed to improving the collective health, openness and stability of public conversation on our platform. Our policies are designed to keep people safe on twitter, and they continuously evolve to reflect realities of the world we operate in. We are working faster, investing to remove content distracting from a healthy conversation reported. Is tackling terrorism and extremism and preventing attacks requires responses, including from social Media Companies. Let me be clear, twitter is incentivized to keep terrorist and violent content from our service, both from a business standpoint and in current Legal Frameworks. Such content doesnt serve our business interest, breaks are rules and is funded mentally contrary to our values. Communities in america and around the world have been impacted by Mass Violence, terrorism and violent extremism with tragic frequency in recent years. These events demand a robust Public Policy response from every quarter. We acknowledge Technology Companies have a role to play. However, it is important to recognize content removal alone cant solve these issues. I would like to outline twitters key policies in this area. First, twitter takes a zerotolerance approach to terrorist content. Individuals may not promote terrorism, engage in terrorist recruitment or engage in terrorist acts. We have suspended over 1. 5 million accounts for violations of rules connected to terrorism, and continue to see more than 90 of these accounts suspended through our own proactive measures. In the majority of cases, we take action at the account creation stage before the account has even tweeted, and the remaining 10 is identified through user reports and partnerships. Secondly, we prohibit use of twitter by violent extra missed groups, defined in our rules as groups that in statements on or off the platform use or promote violence against civilians to further their cause, whatever the ideology. Since the introduction of this policy in 2017, we have taken action on over 186 groups globally, suspending over 2000 unique accounts. Thirdly, twitter doesnt allow hateful conduct on our service. An individual on twitter is not permitted to threaten, promote violence or direct attacks on people based on protected characteristics. When these rules are broken, we take action to remove the content and will permanently remove those promoting terrorism or violent extremism. Fourthly, rules prohibit the selling, buying or facilitating transactions of weapons, including firearms, ammunition and explosives, or instructions on making weapons, explosive devices or 3d printed weapons. We will take appropriate action on any accounts engaging in this activity, including permanent suspension where appropriate. Additionally, we prohibit the promotion of weapons and weapon accessories globally through paid advertising policies. Collaboration with our industry peers and Civil Society is critically important to address the threats of terrorism globally. In june 2017, we launched the Global Internet forum for counterterrorism. This facilitates among other things informationsharing, technical cooperation, research collaboration, including with academic institutions. Twitter and Technology Companies have a role to play in addressing violence, and ensuring our platforms cant be exploited by those promoting violence. This cannot be the only Public Policy response, and removing content alone wont stop those determined to cause harm. Quite often when we remove content from our platforms, it moves those views and ideologies into the dark corners of the internet where they cannot be challenged and held to account. As our Peer Companies improve their efforts, and content continues to migrate to lessgoverned pot forms and services, we are committed to learning and proving that every part of the online ecosystem has a part to play. Addressing Mass Violence requires a whole of society response, and we welcome the opportunity to work with industry peers, government institutions, legislators, Law Enforcement, academics and Civil Society to find the right solutions. Thank. Mr. Slater . Mr. Slater chairman wicker, Ranking Member cantwell, distinguished members of the committee, thank you for the opportunity to appear before you today. Global is derek slater, director of information policy at google. In that capacity, i lead a team advising the company on Public Policy frameworks to deal with online content, including hate speech, extremism and terrorism. Before i begin, i would like to take a moment on behalf of everyone at goog