“The business model is addiction, right?” Mr. Sasse asked at a hearing held by the Senate Judiciary privacy, technology and the law subcommittee. “Money is directly correlated to the amount of time that people spend on the site.” Monika Bickert, Facebook vice president for content policy, said addiction wasn’t the company’s business model. She said Facebook focused on long-term user retention as opposed to users’ persistent, undivided attention. Lauren Culbertson, the chief of U.S. policy at Twitter, said the algorithms can add value to its users’ lives. Alexandra Veitch, the director of government affairs for Google-owned YouTube, said the proliferation of bad information was not in its interest.