Are Facebook, Twitter, and Google American Companies?

On Oct 31’s technology-executive hearings before the Senate Intelligence Committee, a key tension at the heart of the internet emerged: Do American tech companies, such as Twitter, Facebook, and Google, operate as American companies? Or are they in some other global realm, maybe in some place called cyberspace?

In response to a tough line of questions from Sen Tom Cotton (R-AR), Twitter’s acting general counsel, Sean Edgett, gave two conflicting answers within a couple of minutes. Watching the Senators realize that a transfer of power has already occurred between governments around the world and the tech titans, however, seemed to portend that legislators may eventually seek greater changes. Then the question will become if these companies believe that governments can force them to change their policies, or whether they exist in a realm outside traditional governmental control. And this state of affairs is how a set of Senate hearings has come to seem like the prologue for a cyberpunk novel.