Lawmakers press tech companies on efforts to combat extremism online

Lawmakers said that they continue to have questions after Google, Facebook, Twitter and Microsoft briefed a House panel on their efforts to take down extremist content online. Members of the House Homeland Security Committee questioned representatives from some of Silicon Valley's largest companies in a closed-door briefing about how they deal with white supremacist and bigoted content online. "While I'm encouraged by their answers, we still have a long way to go," said Rep Val Demings (D-FL), who sits on the committee. Homeland Security Chairman Bennie Thompson (D-MI) invited the tech companies to come to Capitol Hill and discuss their efforts to crack down on violent extremists following the mass shooting at two New Zealand mosques earlier this month, an attack that was live-streamed online. "While I appreciate the tech sector’s cooperation in coming to Congress to brief us on their efforts to stop the propagation of terrorist content on their platforms, we still need more information," Chairman Thompson said.