Facebook chief executive, Mark Zuckerberg encountered connection issues as he was due to appear remotely at a US Senate hearing this afternoon.
The hearing had to take a short recess to allow him to sort out the issue and link up to it.
The head of the three biggest tech companies in the world have been facing questions from US Senators remotely.
The hearing entitled “Does Section 230’s Sweeping Immunity Enable Big Tech Bad Behavior?, is being chaired by Roger Wicker, the chairman of the US Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation.
"A most interesting development."
Senate Commerce Committee enters a five minute recess at the start of a hearing on big tech, as Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has trouble connecting remotely. https://t.co/VqkSnwuPEn pic.twitter.com/Eqmg3cjwpD— ABC News (@ABC) October 28, 2020
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The hearing will examine if Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act has outlived its usefulness in today’s digital age.
Section 230 broadly provides immunity for website publishers from third-party content being posted on their platform.
Jack Dorsey, chief executive of Twitter, Sundar Pichai, chief executive of Google and Mark Zuckerberg, chief executive of Facebook are all taking part in the hearing.
The committee said "In order to maintain physical distancing as advised by the Office of the Attending Physician, seating for credentialed press will be limited throughout the course of the hearing. Due to current limited access to the Capitol complex, the general public is encouraged to view this hearing via the live stream."
The chief executive's have so far been asked about their platforms guidelines and how some content which is still on their platforms could be seen breaching their own guidelines.
You can watch the hearing here: https://www.commerce.senate.gov/2020/10/does-section-230-s-sweeping-immunity-enable-big-tech-bad-behavior
