Graham: Senate Judiciary to Seek Tech CEO Testimony ‘Probably After’ Election

The Senate Judiciary Committee will seek voluntary testimony from Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg and Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey “probably after the election,” Chairman Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., told reporters Thursday. The comment came after the committee majority voted unanimously to subpoena testimony from the CEOs. Democrats boycotted the hearing over Amy Coney Barrett’s nomination to the Supreme Court. Facebook and Twitter declined comment.

The Senate Commerce Committee “turned down having a joint Judiciary-Commerce hearing” with the CEOs, Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, told reporters. So it’s reasonable for multiple committees to pursue testimony, he said. Commerce scheduled a Thursday hearing with Zuckerberg, Dorsey and Google CEO Sundar Pichai (see 2010160054).

“I’m hoping we can reach an accommodation to do it voluntarily,” Graham said. “We’ve been working with them to do a joint hearing. That didn’t work out, but I’m hopeful ... I’ve been talking to them” to find a way to “do the hearing probably after the election.” Some Commerce members weren’t on board for a joint hearing, Graham said: “I understood” Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Roger Wicker, R-Miss.

Asked about denying a joint hearing, Wicker told us: “I really don’t know what the status is there.” When told about the Judiciary subpoena vote, Wicker said, “Good.” The Senate Commerce Committee agreed to terms the first week of October with the tech companies for Thursday’s hearing, and the Judiciary Committee didn’t request a joint hearing until last week, after the New York Post article on Hunter Biden (see 2010140064), a Commerce aide told us Thursday: Commerce would have had to start over at “square one” to arrange a joint hearing.

Democrats requested Judiciary hold over the subpoena vote, Graham said during Thursday’s hearing. Before proceeding with the vote, he noted there’s a lot of interest from Democrats to get social media executives to answer questions about platforms. Graham again held over the Online Content Policy Modernization Act (see 2010160055).

Sens. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., and Mazie Hirono, D-Hawaii, suggested the tech CEO hearing should be held after the election. “It ought to be after the election when we can do it in a thoughtful, serious and substantive way,” Blumenthal told us. Asked if it’s reasonable for multiple committees to seek testimony, he said, “Different committees have different interests and priorities,” and it depends on the circumstances.

Hirono said she likely wouldn’t have voted yes for the subpoenas had she attended the hearing. “The whole premise is that Big Tech is censoring certain kinds of content, conservative content, when in reality I think most of the conservative stuff goes flying out into the airwaves,” she told us. “They’ve been on this kick for a while.” A hearing before the election would serve as a distraction, she said, so she was glad to hear it could be held after.

Sen. Brian Schatz, D-Hawaii, expressed skepticism about seeking CEO testimony: “This is a hijacking of the Senate committee process for the purpose of bullying social media platforms into carrying foreign misinformation,” he told us. “It is one of the most egregious abuses of power I’ve seen in the Senate, and that is really saying something. ... The whole thing is insane, and they’ve all just dove into this fever swamp, and they should be ashamed of themselves.”

There’s crossover with members of Commerce and Judiciary, so the CEOs “will be questioned thoroughly,” Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, told us, saying it’s reasonable for multiple committees to request testimony. “It’s more of a traffic jam right here before the election,” but each committee will have its chance to exercise jurisdiction, he said.

It’s important to coordinate, and “it’s important that Commerce go first,” Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., told us: The executives owe Congress “an explanation. They’ve got business practices that have to be updated.” There’s no “shortage of issues,” said Sen. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn. She will be asking about privacy, censorship and how platforms organize their businesses. There’s been a lot of talk, hearings and news releases for the past three years, said Sen. John Kennedy, R-La.: Privacy is the “easiest” issue, and “we haven’t even tackled that.”

After the hearing, House Commerce Committee Republicans repeated their call for Chairman Frank Pallone, D-N.J., to hold a hearing with tech CEOs (see 2010160054): “While we thank our Senate colleagues for forcing these CEOs to testify, we also demand Energy and Commerce Committee Democrats stop sitting on the sidelines on online harms and censorship and start working to protect our democracy,” wrote House Commerce Committee ranking member Greg Walden, Oregon, House Consumer Protection Subcommittee ranking member Cathy McMorris Rodgers, Washington, and House Communications Subcommittee ranking member Bob Latta, Ohio.