For a hearing on Section 230 that saw high profile testimonies from CEOs of Twitter, Facebook and Google, there was hardly any discussion on the subject. The US Senate's Commerce Committee's hearing on the Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act — which protects social media companies from being responsible for content posted by users — was marred by political grandstanding and bickering. Republican members of the committee tried to accuse the companies of censoring president Donald Trump and being biased against conservatives. Democratic senators, meanwhile, deplored the hearing for politicising Section 230 just days before the US presidential elections. Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, in his opening remarks, told the committee that he supported reforming Section 230 to ensure that "it's working as intended". Google CEO Sundar Pichai urged the committee to be "very thoughtful" about any changes to Section 230, indicating widespread consequences on businesses and consumers. Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey was a bit more emphatic in his defence of Section 230 and said weakening Section 230 protections will remove critical speech from the internet. But this was it. Almost all mention of Section 230 was relegated to the opening statements of the CEOs and a few senators. Republican senators essentially launched a tirade against Dorsey and Zuckerberg for their platforms' decision to limit the distribution of the New York Post's articles on Hunter Biden, son of Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden. Dorsey was the recipient of the senators' ire since Twitter had completely blocked the URL of the…
