There are plenty of lawmakers who know next to nothing about technology. Senator Mark Warner isn't one of them. Long before the Virginia Democrat was sworn into the Senate in 2009, Warner built a career in the venture capital and telecom industries. That background has served the senator well since news broke that Facebook, Google, and Twitter all enabled foreign influence campaigns during the 2016 election[1].
Warner, who acts as vice chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee, has driven much of the conversation around what to do with these giants' unimaginable and unchecked power. He's introduced legislation[2] that would regulate digital political ads and published a 20-point proposal[3] filled with possible fixes. At a hearing with Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg earlier this year, he didn't seem to need any help at all figuring out how to send emails on that WhatsApp[4] doohicky.
Warner wants badly to work with the tech industry titans, but they haven't made it easy. Zuckerberg had to be all but dragged to Congress, insisting[5] that he wasn't the best-positioned executive to address the company's many failings. But eventually, reluctantly, the head honchos at these companies have begun to come around. That is, Warner says, with one giant exception.
When Sheryl Sandberg, Facebook's chief operating officer, and Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey take their seats at a hearing of the Senate Intelligence Committee on Wednesday, one chair, reserved for Google cofounder Larry Page, may remain empty. The committee extended the invitation to Google CEO Sundar Pichai as well as Page, who is CEO of Google's parent company, Alphabet, but the company wanted to send senior vice president Kent Walker instead. The committee refused, leaving a glaring hole where one of the biggest