Yes, or no? Both Jack Dorsey and a good chunk of Congress want to know.
As the CEOs of Twitter, Facebook, and Google were once again brought in front of Congress Thursday for a hearing on combating online misinformation, one question seemed to linger over every heated exchange. Could Jack Dorsey, Mark Zuckerberg, or Sundar Pichai just answer “yes” or “no” for goddamn once?
Dorsey, who participated in the hearing remotely and at various points appeared to be on his phone, seemed to be having fun with the representatives’ frustration. In response to elected officials’ repeated attempts to get a straightforward answer out of the three tech titans, Dorsey tweeted the following poll as the hearing continued.
This desire by elected officials — to get a simple “yes” or “no” answer in response to their questions — crossed party lines, and was seemingly the only consistent through-line throughout much of the hearing.
One such exchange involved Rep. Mike Doyle of Pennsylvania, as he asked the three CEOs if they thought their respective platforms contributed to the events of Jan. 6.
“Just a ‘yes’ or ‘no’ answer,” the Democrat said, clarifying what he was seeking as a response. “Mr. Zuckerberg?”
Zuckerberg then proceeded, of course, to not answer with a “yes” or a “no.”
“Mr. Zuckerberg I just want a ‘yes’ or ‘no’ answer, OK?” interrupted Doyle. “Do you bear some responsibility for what happened?”
Zuckerberg continued to stammer an answer that most decidedly was not “yes” or “no.” This then went on with Pichai and Dorsey, the latter of which actually answered with a “yes, but…”
Groundbreaking.
SEE ALSO: 12 people are behind most of the anti-vaxxer disinformation you see on social media
As of the time of this writing, there have been about 49,420 votes in Dorsey’s Twitter poll. The yeses are in the lead, with a resounding 65 percent of the vote. It’s not clear if any members of Congress voted in the poll.