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Congressman Asks Facebook CEO Zuckerberg Why Trump Jr’s Twitter Account Was Suspended

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Chris White Tech Reporter
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Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg corrected Rep. James Sensenbrenner during Wednesday’s antitrust hearing after the Republican appeared to confuse Zuckerberg’s company with another Silicon Valley giant.

“It was reported that Donald Trump Jr. got taken down for a period of time because he put something up on the efficacy of Hydroxychloroquine,” the Wisconsin Republican asked Zuckerberg during the hearing. “And I think that this is a legitimate matter of discussion. Why did that happen?”

Zuckerberg provided a deadpan response: “I think what you might be referring to happened on Twitter. It’s hard for me to speak to that. I can talk to our policies about this. We do prohibit content that will lead to imminent risk of harm.” (RELATED: EXCLUSIVE: Questioning Tech Execs On Conservative Bias Is Crucial During Antitrust Hearings, Rep. Buck Says)

Sensenbrenner and other Democrats and Republicans on the House Judiciary Committee are grilling the Facebook executive alongside CEOs Tim Cook of Apple, Jeff Bezos of Amazon, and Sundar Pichai of Google on whether their companies violate federal antitrust laws.

House lawmakers on the committee have collected 1.3 million documents, conducted several interviews and held five other hearings featuring tech executives, the Washington Post reported Monday. Democratic lawmakers plan to produce a report some party leaders think will show Silicon Valley sidestepped federal competition laws, according to the Post.

Evidence shows tech executives used a “copy-acquire-kill” strategy, Rep. Pramila Jayapal told the Washington Post Monday. The committee has seen “very specific language from top-level executives about that,” the Washington Democrat added without providing more details about the alleged strategy.

Zuckerberg testified in front of Congress in 2018, fielding questions on a censorship and privacy data.

Former Republican Sen. Orrin Hatch asked Zuckerberg during that year’s hearing how he sustains “a business model in which users don’t pay for your service?”

The 36-year-old tech titan replied, “Senator, we run ads.”

“I see,” Hatch responded.

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