A triumvirate of the world’s best-known tech bosses squared off with Congress today, although the showdown was entirely disappointing to most observers.

Facebook Inc. Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg surprised some onlookers Tuesday when his written testimony seemed to suggest that he was up for revising a law that gives tech companies broad immunity for what people post on their platforms. Google LLC CEO Sundar Pichai and Twitter Inc. CEO Jack Dorsey stood shoulder-to-shoulder with Zuckerberg in saying the law protects freedom of speech, although they both wrote that they thought Section 230 is fine as it is.

What actually happened over the almost four hours of talking was not what some might have hoped, that is discussion of sensible amendments to the law that would benefit society on the whole. For much of the show, Republicans lambasted the chief executives for their alleged conservative bias while Democrats denied that this was happening.

The meeting was called “Does Section 230’s Sweeping Immunity Enable Big Tech Bad Behavior?” but it looked more like a Wild West showdown between opposing sides, not a discussion about specific policies. Even though the CEOs communicated via teleconferencing, there was enough drama to make the hearing look something like a circus event.

“Mr. Dorsey, who the hell elected you and put you in charge of what the media are allowed to report and what the American people are allowed to hear?” said Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas. He was referring to Twitter’s suppression of a controversial news story involving Joe Biden’s son Hunter.

At the time, Dorsey did say that Twitter had made a mistake in not informing people why the story was suppressed. The issue still remains a touchy one for anyone who values free speech. It may be a discussion worth having, but probably not right before a presidential election.

During the hearing, Dorsey said he didn’t want the law changed, but he added that Twitter is currently making every effort to improve transparency about moderation. He also said his company is improving the appeals process. That wasn’t enough for Cruz, who called the triad of companies “the single greatest threat to free speech in America.”

Democratic Sen. Richard Blumenthal bit back, saying that the Republican assemblage was just trying to “bully and browbeat” the CEOs so they would “tilt” in the direction of favoring President Trump. Democrat Brian Schatz agreed, administering advice to the tech bosses, “Do not let the United States Senate bully you.”

Democrat Tammy Duckworth said her nemeses on the other side of the fence were putting the “selfish interests of Donald Trump” before the health of American democracy. Not surprisingly, at times voices were raised during the exchanges.

All three of the men on the virtual stand not surprisingly denied that their platforms have any political bias at all. In fact, Zuckerberg said his company had spent $3 billion to improve the moderation process. Pichai said Google had invested $1 billion to improve its moderation. He added that for Google to have any kind of political bias would be “contrary to both our business interests and our mission, which compels us to make information accessible to every type of person, no matter where they live or what they believe.”

All the CEOs said they had committed a lot of time and resources towards ensuring bad actors from Russia, Iran and China can’t exploit their platforms and manipulate the American people. Essentially the message was, “Please don’t change Section 230, we are now better at moderation.”

In all, the vast majority of the questions that came from Republicans were related to what side of politics the tech companies were on. The majority of questions that came from Democrats were about the platforms allowing misinformation to flourish, especially in regard to COVID-19.

Most observers who watched the debate agreed that one thing that didn’t happen in any way at all was progress. There are many important questions that need to be asked concerning how these companies moderate and sometimes make the decision to “deplatform” someone, but the hard questions weren’t asked. No observer who watched the circus would gain any insight or feel any better about the tech CEOs or the people interviewing them.

Committee Chair Roger Wicker, who struggled to pronounce Pichai’s name correctly, had strong words at the start of the hearing. The Republican warned the bosses with the timbre of the new sheriff in town, “the time has come for that free pass to end,” meaning Section 230 wasn’t going to protect them from liability for much longer.

It was a grand statement, but that’s all it was, as hot air superseded thoughtful debate from beginning to end.

Photo: rjp/Flickr