Tech stocks tumble as Twitter and Facebook testify before Congress

Facebook chief operating officer Sheryl Sandberg and Twitter chief executive officer Jack Dorsey are sworn-in for a Senate Intelligence Committee hearing concerning foreign influence operations’ use of social media platforms.Drew Angerer/Getty Images

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Shares of some of the world’s largest tech companies were taking a beating Wednesday as executives from Twitter and Facebook testified before Congress.

Here’s the scoreboard as of Wednesday midday:

Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey and Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg testified before the Senate Intelligence Committee to answer questions about their platform’s roles in the 2016 US presidential election and any Russian interference in the democratic process via the social networks.

“We were too slow to spot this and too slow to act,” Sandberg told the committee in her opening statement. “That’s on us. This interference was completely unacceptable. It violated the values of our company and of the country we love.”

Twitter’s Dorsey, who has come under fire in recent weeks for remaining more “hands-off,” said the social network was unprepared for what the election brought to its platform.

“We found ourselves unprepared and ill-equipped for the immensity of the problems we’ve acknowledged,” he testified. “Abuse, harassment, troll armies, propaganda through bots and human coordination, disinformation campaigns and divisive filter bubbles — that’s not a healthy public square.”

Members of cCongress running the hearing said the legislative body would have to act in order to avoid further disruptions in the future — like during the swiftly approaching 2018 midterm election this November.

“Each of you have come a long way with respect to recognizing the threat,” Senator Mark Warner, the committee’s top-ranking Democrat, said.

“The bad news, I’m afraid, is that there is a lot of work still to do. And I’m skeptical that, ultimately, you’ll be able to truly address this challenge on your own. Congress is going to have to take action here.”

The committee also took a shot at Alphabet CEO Larry Page, who declined an invitation to appear, by leaving out an empty chair.

“The committee takes this issue very seriously, and we appreciate that Facebook and Twitter are represented here this morning with an equivalent and appropriate measure of seriousness,” Senator Burr of North Carolina said.

The tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 index was down about 1.7% Wednesday morning thanks to the mega-cap stocks’ major declines. 

This story is developing…

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