Twitter and Facebook executives testify before Congress – as it happened
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Five months after Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg appeared before Congress, the US government once again invited tech executives to a series of high profile hearings.
Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg and Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey first faced the Senate Select Intelligence Committee, before Mr Dorsey was questioned on his own by the House Energy and Commerce Committee.
Notably absent from the proceedings was Google, after the firm failed to send a senior executive to Washington. In place of a Google representative, the Senate committee left an empty chair.
Please allow a moment for the live blog to load.
The hearings went slightly better than Mr Zuckerberg's venture to the Capitol in April, when members of Congress needed explanations of some of the platform's basic functions. This time, they challenged the executives with hard-hitting questions about foreign actors and political bias.
The questioning was interrupted several times by conservative media figures like Alex Jones and Laura Loomer. Both were escorted out of the hearing, but continued broadcasting their views loudly to reporters waiting in the hallways.
The far right conspiracy theorist has been the subject of a lot of debate surrounding free speech on the social media platforms, which saw him removed and then reinstated to Twitter earlier this month.
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Meanwhile, inside the hearing, Facebook COO describes the situation as an "arms race" between her company and nefarious actors.
Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey is up now to deliver his opening statement. And, of course, he's live tweeting it.
Here's Dorsey live tweeting his opening remarks. Some coordination there to speak and tweet at the same time.
The pattern of questions echo those faced by Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg in April. Many of them are technical questions about the platforms, demonstrating some of the Senators' lack of fundamental understanding of how these companies work.
Vice Chairman Warner blames Facebook for a lack of transparency when it comes to what its doing with people's data and why. "Most users are in the dark," he says.
Alex Jones update: He has entered the hearing, and is apparently spectating from the front row.
Both Dorsey and Sandberg seem unperturbed by the presence of the InfoWars host.
Sandberg responds to a question by Senator Martin Heinrich by saying Facebook is getting smarter at detecting and preventing threats to elections.
Dorsey echoes her words, detailing AI tools to recognize patterns of behavior that allow people to artificially amplify information.
On the topic of so-called Fake News, Sandberg says: "Finding the line between what is hate speech and what is misinformation is very, very difficult."
The hearing is in recess now, and a live video of Alex Jones is being shared, appropriately, on social media.
He is prowling the corridors behind the hearing and looks and sounds very purposeful – though it's still not clear what his purpose actually is.
"I'm here to face my accusers," he barks to no one.
The conspiracy theorist just managed to corner a Senator, though the poor quality of the video stream makes it difficult to determine which one.
Jones' words are clear though: "Stop violating the first amendment... Shame on you, you un-American tyrant."
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