Under fire from US President Donald Trump and his allies, the CEOs of Twitter, Facebook and Google rebuffed accusations of anticonservative bias at a Senate hearing and promised to aggressively defend their platforms from being used to sow chaos in next week’s election. Lawmakers of both parties, eyeing the companies’ tremendous power to disseminate speech and ideas, were looking to challenge their long-enjoyed bedrock legal protections for online speech – the stated topic for the hearing but one that was quickly overtaken by questions related to the presidential campaign. With worries over election security growing, senators on the Commerce Committee extracted promises from Twitter’s Jack Dorsey, Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg and Google’s Sundar Pichai that their companies would be on guard against meddling by foreign actors or the incitement of violence around the election results. Testifying via video, the executives said they are taking several steps, including partnerships with news organisations, to distribute accurate information about voting. Dorsey said Twitter was working closely with state election officials. How Donald Trump could end his presidency with a wild transition “We want to give people using the service as much information as possible,” he said. Republicans, led by Trump, have accused the social media platforms, without evidence, of deliberately suppressing conservative, religious and anti-abortion views, and they say that behaviour has reached new heights in the contest between the president and Democratic nominee Joe Biden. Republican Senator Roger Wicker, the committee’s chairman, said laws governing online speech must be updated because “the openness and freedom of the internet are under attack”. Wicker cited the move this month by Facebook and Twitter to limit dissemination of an unverified political story from the conservative-leaning New York Post about Biden. The story, which was not confirmed by other publications, cited unverified emails from Biden’s son Hunter that were reportedly disclosed by Trump allies. “Twitter’s conduct has by far been the most egregious,” Republican Senator Ted Cruz told Dorsey. Cruz cited Twitter’s limitations on the newspaper story as part of “a pattern of censorship and silencing Americans with whom Twitter disagrees”. “Who the hell elected you? And put you in charge of what the media are allowed to report?” Cruz asked. US election 2020: Donald Trump pulls Florida ads, bets on battlegrounds north Dorsey told Cruz that he does not believe that Twitter can influence elections because it’s only one source of information. He tried to steer senators away from conventional notions of political bias, noting that “much of the content people see today is determined by algorithms”. He endorsed a proposal from computer scientist Stephen Wolfram that would allow third parties to guide how artificial intelligence systems choose what postings people see. Cruz had criticism for Google too, and what he alleged was its “willingness to manipulate search outcomes to influence and change election results”. Democrats focused their criticism mainly on hate speech, misinformation and other content that can incite violence, keep people from voting or spread falsehoods about the coronavirus. They criticised the tech CEOs for failing to police content, blaming the platforms for playing a role in hate crimes and the rise of white nationalism in the US. Hackers breach Trump campaign website, threaten to release ‘evidence’ of crimes Although the hearing covered a wide range of topics, it was ostensibly about reforming Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act from the 1990s. The provision allows tech companies to avoid being prosecuted for the actions of third parties on their platform. It also gives platforms the freedom to take action on individual posts. Trump and his Republican allies have repeatedly denounced the law in recent months. Trump chimed in Wednesday with a tweet exhorting, “Repeal Section 230!” The CEOs argued that the liability shield has helped make the internet what it is today, though Zuckerberg said he believes that Congress “should update the law to make sure it’s working as intended”. Dorsey and Pichai urged caution in making any changes. Starting Tuesday, Facebook isn’t accepting any new political advertising. Previously booked political ads will be able to run until the polls close November 3, when all political advertising will temporarily be banned. Google, which owns YouTube, also is halting political ads after the polls close. Twitter banned all political ads last year. Additional reporting by DPA