Hot times were had  on Capitol Hill at the Senate and House hearings with leaders of Facebook and Twitter — but not with Google, which declined the invitation to come testify about such things as election influencing and political bias on its platform. El Kaiser and J.D.  also discuss Apple’s new global portal for law enforcement pros, Amazon’s new tablet and a new study from the Pew Internet Research Center about how people’s feelings have changed about a certain Social Network over the past year. This week’s show also includes a highlight tour of some of the more popular features in Google’s Android 9.0 (Pie) system and Apple’s iOS 12. Jump into Episode 286 now!

Links to Stories Discussed on This Week’s Episode

• Twitter: Transparency and Accountability (House Energy and Commerce Committee)
• Senate Intelligence Committee: Foreign Influence and Social Media (C-SPAN)
• Facebook and Twitter Have a Message for Lawmakers: We’re Trying. (The New York Times)
• Facebook and Twitter testify before Congress. Alex Jones lurks behind. (The Washington Post)
• Twitter bans Alex Jones and InfoWars (CNN)
• Twitter’s shadow banning bug ‘unfairly filtered’ 600,000 accounts (Engadget)
• Justice Dept. says social media giants may be ‘intentionally stifling’ free speech (TechCrunch)
• Twitter is testing a major redesign of its desktop website (ThisIsInsider)
• Google’s Empty Chair at Senate Marks Unforced Error in D.C. (Bloomberg)
• Google sets October 9th for the Pixel 3 unveiling (Ars Technica)
• Making it easier to discover datasets (Google Keyword blog)
• Latest information| Data Theft (British Airways)
• Apple to Launch a Global Law Enforcement Web Portal to Streamline Data Requests by End of 2018 [Updated] (Mac Rumors)
• Meet Nico and Veronica (Snap Inc.)
• Amazon Fire HD 8 Tablet (Amazon Press Room)
• Bernie Sanders introduces the BEZOS Act slamming Amazon low wages (CNBC)
• Many US Facebook users have changed privacy settings or taken a break (Pew Research Center)

New Mobile Operating Systems

• iOS 12 Preview (Apple)
• Apple iOS 12: the biggest new features coming to the iPhone (TheVerge)
• Android Pie (Google)
• What You Need to Know About Android 9 Pie (Techlicious)