On the heels of the US House Judiciary Committee antitrust hearing looking into big tech and also the European Commission working on the Digital Services Act and Democracy Action Plan, Twitter has spoken out today about its two most important goals in supporting an Open Internet. The message also highlights how its moderation approach differs from Facebook.
Twitter Tweeted about its priorities today in response to the European Commission opening up the consultation period for the Democracy Action Plan which also comes the day after the US government questioned Facebook, Amazon, Google, and Apple about market dominance concerns.
Twitter said that supporting an Open Internet is a “key objective” for the company and noted its top two related aims:
- Avoid entrenching the dominance of the biggest players by protecting competition
- Focus on how content is discovered + amplified, less on removal alone
The second item highlights a notable difference between Twitter and Facebook as the latter is more focused on content removal while Twitter is shooting for moderating inappropriate and harmful content by adjusting how content is found and shared.
As we reported in our live blog coverage of the House Judiciary antitrust hearing, Zuckerberg was questioned around the topic of harmful content:
We’re now moving into the third and final round of questioning. Cicilline kicks things off by asking Zuckerberg if he has a responsibility to remove harmful lies from Facebook. “I do not believe we have any incentive to have this content on our platform, except it’s often the most engaging,” Zuckerberg says.
Just after that…
Cicilline [questioned] Zuckerberg on why Facebook took so long to remove the incorrect and debunked hydroxychloroquine video on Monday.
For more details on Twitter’s approach to all of this, check out the full threads below:
Protecting the #OpenInternet is a key objective for Twitter – it’s why we exist. There are two key areas to consider:
1. Avoid entrenching the dominance of the biggest players by protecting competition
2. Focus on how content is discovered + amplified, less on removal alone— Global Government Affairs (@GlobalAffairs) July 30, 2020
1. If legislation serves to cement the position of larger companies, it will harm the Open Internet, innovation, and consumer choice irreparably. In sum, robust competition and guaranteeing a fair playing field are essential.
— Global Government Affairs (@GlobalAffairs) July 30, 2020
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