Elon Musk is the owner of social media platform X.
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While top executives from Alphabet, After and Microsoft headed to Capitol Hill on Wednesday for a hearing on election threats, Elon Musk’s X did not attend, according to the office of the chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee.
A spokesman for Sen. Mark R. Warner, the Democratic chairman, said in an emailed statement that X “refused to send an appropriate witness.” No further details were given.
An X spokesperson told CNBC that the company’s guest witness was Nick Pickles, who was head of global affairs but “resigned on September 6.” Warner’s office said X refused to send a replacement after Pickles left.
Alphabet, the parent company of Google, is represented by Kent Walker, the president and chief legal officer, while Meta’s head of global affairs, Nick Clegg, represents the social networking company. Microsoft President Brad Smith represents the software giant.
The hearing, led by Warner, D-Va., and committee Vice Chairman Marco Rubio, R-Fla., is focused on lawmakers’ concerns about foreign entities trying to influence the outcome of November’s presidential election using the biggest technological platforms.
Alphabet and Microsoft recently released research into efforts by Iranian and Russian hacking groups to influence or attack officials connected to President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump. Hackers have used a variety of tactics, including spear phishing.
The Biden administration said on September 4 that it is targeting Russian government-backed efforts to influence US public opinion.
“We will be relentlessly aggressive in confronting and thwarting the efforts of Russia, Iran, as well as China or any other foreign malign actor” attempting to “interfere in elections and undermine our membership,” the General said in a statement at the time Attorney Merrick Garland. .
X’s absence from Wednesday’s hearing follows a series of divisive posts by Musk, the world’s richest man, on the app, formerly known as Twitter, which he acquired in 2022. Musk has nearly 200 million registered followers.
After a second apparent assassination attempt against Republican ex-Trump on Sunday, Musk shared and then deleted a position in which he wondered why “nobody” made death threats against Biden and Democratic nominee Kamala Harris. Biden and Harris have both received death threats while in the office.
European news agencies was mentioned This week Musk previously shared content on X that was created by the Social Design Agency, which led a Kremlin-directed propaganda campaign, according to the US Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control.
On Wednesday Musk shared a false story on X that claimed explosives were found in a car near a planned Trump rally in Long Island, New York; According to a statement from Nassau County Policea citizen near the gathering site had falsely reported that explosives had been found.
In the early stages of the meeting Wednesday afternoon, Warner said “it’s a shame” that no one from X showed up. She said that, before Musk’s acquisition, the company was a “partner.”
“Under X, they’re absent and some of the most egregious activity has taken place” on the platform, Warner said.
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