Silicon Valley Skewered by Democrats on Slow Russia Response

[TexasTowelie]

(Bloomberg) -- Top Democrats on the Senate Intelligence Committee berated lawyers for social media giants Facebook Inc., Twitter Inc. and Google for a lethargic response to Russian interference in U.S. politics, as the companies’ lawyers faced a second day of grilling in Congress.

“Your first presentations were less than sufficient,” Mark Warner said at the panel’s hearing Wednesday, saying lawmakers were at first “blown off” by companies that in effect said, “Nothing like this happened. Nothing to see here," only to later acknowledge that Russian efforts had reached perhaps as many as 150 million Americans.

Several senators chided the companies for sending their lawyers instead of their chief executive officers. “We would appreciate seeing the top people who are actually making the decisions,” said Senator Angus King or Maine, an independent who caucuses with Democrats. The committee’s leaders have said they wanted witnesses able to answer technical questions, not necessarily the CEOs.

Still, Facebook’s General Counsel Colin Stretch was dressed down when he was unable to tell Warner whether his company had cross-checked 30,000 fake accounts it took down before the French election to see if any had been active in the U.S.

Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/business/article/Social-Media-Companies-Get-Unaccustomed-Grilling-12321996.php

[BigmanPigman]

1. I watched parts of it and Feinstein was tough on them.

So were the others. Of course chickenshit Fuckerberg and lean-in Sandberg were no-show capitalists who are most likely guilty of collusion with the moron's campaign and Russia as is Twitter.