US elections: Mark Zuckerberg, Jack Dorsey to testify before US senate judiciary panel

SAN FRANCISCO: The US Senate Judiciary Committee has asked Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg and Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey to testify before it on November 17 over suppressing a media article on Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden and his son Hunter Biden.

Both Facebook and Twitter faced backlash from the Republicans and US President Donald Trump for their move to block and censor the article that appeared in The New York Post and was critical of Joe Biden.

The Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham (R-South Carolina) on Friday announced that Twitter CEO Dorsey and Facebook CEO Zuckerberg will appear voluntarily before the committee on November 17.

"The hearing will focus on the platforms' censorship and suppression of New York Post articles and provide a valuable opportunity to review the companies' handling of the 2020 election," the Senate Judiciary Committee said in a statement.

After the New York Post published a series of stories citing emails, purportedly sent by Biden's son, Twitter blocked users from posting pictures of the emails, citing its rules against sharing "content obtained through hacking that contains private information".

Facebook also limited the spread of the story, saying the story had made unverified claims about Hunter Biden's Ukraine business and therefore the story was eligible for third-party fact-checking.

Later, in a reversal of its earlier stance, Twitter decided to allow users to share the article.

The company allowed the distribution of the article because the "once-private information in the article has now been made widely available across the Internet".

Dorsey admitted that the initial blocking of the article without explanation was not the right decision.