In the U.S, Many Complaints About Big Tech, Little Action

When Facebook Inc. chief executive officer Mark Zuckerberg appeared before the U.S. Congress in April, lawmakers warned that the era of self-regulation for social media was likely over. When the CEO of Alphabet Inc.’s Google, Sundar Pichai, testifies Dec. 11, he’s likely to hear the same admonition. Despite a plethora of complaints about big-tech companies from lawmakers and the public, only in the area of protecting privacy does it appear that new nationwide rules may be forthcoming. That’s largely because otherwise, American politicians don’t agree on what the most pressing issues are, or what to do about them.

U.S. President Donald Trump, members of his Republican Party and other conservative groups repeatedly have charged that Facebook, Google and Twitter Inc. are biased against them. They say the companies suppress or reduce the visibility of their opinions while favoring liberals. No evidence has emerged of systematic anti-conservative bias on the major social-media platforms. Conservatives have seized on examples of leftist political expression by Google employees, including a leaked meeting in which executives expressed dismay about Trump’s 2016 election and an email from an employee touting company efforts to increase voter participation among Latinos. Both Google and Facebook have acknowledged the liberal leanings of their workforces but say that doesn’t impact the way they filter content. Twitter said that an adjustment to stop the spread of forbidden content was responsible for some accounts dropping from automated search results in July and that it affected accounts across the political spectrum.