Senator Susan Collins asks Jack Dorsey what Twitter does to notify people who have been following fake accounts once they are taken down.

"We simply haven't done enough," he says. Referring to one example when a Russia-controlled account purported to be run by the Republican Party, he said that there wasn't "enough communication" with those who had viewed the account.

He says Twitter does need to alert people who have been subject to "falsehoods or manipulation" and the firm will be "diligent to fix" its flaws.

Image source, US Senate

Twitter boss Jack Dorsey suggests his platform needs to think harder about its influence on society.

"Every time someone opens up our app, we are implicitly incentivising them to do something, or not to do something, " he tells senators.

He says the "answers" to what this might be will lead to a big shift in how Twitter operates in future - and the wider social media industry.

"What worked 12 years ago doesn't work today but [the industry] hasn't evolved fast enough," he says.

A statement from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, external on Emirates flight 203 has just been sent to us:

“CDC is aware of an Emirates flight from Saudi Arabia arriving at JFK this morning with some passengers who are reporting an unspecified illness.

"CDC is working with local authorities to investigate and will provide additional information when it is available.”

Marco Rubio, Senator for Florida, asks what happens if an authoritarian regime asks a social media company to take down posts or tweets.

For example, he says, Pakistan has asked for blocks on what it considers blasphemy.

Ms Sandberg says Facebook would not have servers in countries like Vietnam and it would not hand over information to governments that did not act in line with its principles.

Mr Dorsey says it has stood up to the Turkish government before. But he also says that he has to act in line with local laws.

As Sheryl Sandberg testifies on Capitol Hill, some interesting research from Pew, external on the public's attitude to Facebook. Just over half of users have changed their privacy settings recently, while both Republicans and Democrats have taken a break from the site.

Image source, Pew

Finding inauthentic behaviour is a challenge, Ms Sandberg tells the Senate Intelligence Committee.

This is why the firm is investing in tools to weed out bad actors and boosting transparency, she says.

"So being able to see if people bought political ads, where they're located, being able to see who is running an account."

Image source, US Senate

Sheryl Sandberg is grilled about the use of Facebook to organise alleged genocides of the rohingya in Myanmar.

Does Facebook have a "moral and potentially a legal" obligation to take down accounts that incentivise violence, Senator Warner asks.

"I absolutely believe that, " Ms Sandberg says.

She says the Myanmar crisis was "devastating" and the firm has "ramped up" it abilities to review posts in Burmese.

Shares in both Facebook and Twitter are down as the Senate Intelligence committee hearing gets underway.

Facebook is down 1% while Twitter has lost almost 5%.

"Our opponents are very well funded, very well organised," says Ms Sandberg.

She is asked whether Facebook alerts other social networks when it detects any intrusions on its site.

The Facebook COO says yes, but adds that the company could do "more to formalise the process".

"Privacy and advertising are not at odds, in fact they go together," Facebook's Sheryl Sandberg tells lawmakers.

She emphasises that the social network does not sell user data.

Image source, Gett

At its best, Facebook helps US democracy by encouraging people to vote and share opinions online, Ms Sandberg tells Senators.

But, she says, evidence shows Russia used the platform to systematically interfere in US elections and those elsewhere.

She says Facebook was too slow to act - "that is on us" - and the firm is now determined to do all it can to stop it happening again.

She says the firm has doubled the numbers it has working on security. Better artificial intelligence is helping it weed out extreme content.

And it is trying to educate users on the provenance of articles.

"People need to trust the content they see is valid... We are now blocking millions of attempts to set up fake accounts each day," she adds.

Image source, Getty Images

Facebook chief operating officer Sheryl Sandberg and Jack Dorsey, boss of Twitter, are about to give evidence to the Senate Intelligence Committee on foreign meddling in US elections.

Both firms recently removed hundreds of malicious accounts set up to influence the upcoming US midterm elections.

But Senators are set to criticise them for not doing enough to stop these bad apples in the past.

In written testimony released ahead of the hearing, Ms Sandberg was contrite: "We were too slow to spot this and too slow to act."

Image source, Getty Images

Donald Trump attacked US social media firms ahead of a Senate hearing into foreign meddling in US elections.

The US President accused firms like Twitter of interfering with the upcoming 2018 midterm election, without appearing to offer any evidence.

He also told the Daily Caller that the platforms were "super liberal".

"The true interference in the last election was that - if you look at all, virtually all of those companies are super liberal companies in favour of Hillary Clinton," he said, referring to his Democratic opponent in the 2016 White House contest.

US intelligence agencies have concluded that Russia interfered in the 2016 campaign with the aim of tilting the election in Trump's favour, a finding that Moscow has denied.

The pound has spiked after Bloomberg reported that the UK and Germany have abandoned key Brexit demands.

Quoting people familiar with the matter, it said Germany was ready to accept a less-detailed agreement on future ties in a bid to get a deal done.

The UK is also willing to accept a more vague statement of intent on the future relationship, it reported.

The pound is now up almost 1% against the dollar at $1.2971.

Financial Times