Elon Musk's X refused to provide a witness for the Senate hearing on election threats.
- Mark Warner, chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee, was told by a representative that X declined to send a witness to an election security hearing.
- On Wednesday, executives from Alphabet, Meta, and Microsoft will appear before the committee for a hearing.
On Wednesday, top executives from and will attend a hearing on election threats, but Elon Musk's X will not participate.
Nick Pickles, the former head of global affairs at X, was invited as a witness by the company and confirmed his resignation on September 6, according to a spokesperson for X who spoke to CNBC.
The hearing, titled "Foreign Threats to Elections in 2024 — Roles and Responsibilities of U.S. Tech Providers," will feature Kent Walker of Alphabet, Nick Clegg of Meta, and Brad Smith of Microsoft as representatives of their respective companies.
The Biden administration announced it's aiming to counter Russian government-backed efforts to sway American public opinion this month.
Merrick Garland, the Attorney General, stated that they will be unyielding in their efforts to thwart and disrupt any attempts by Russia, Iran, China, or any other foreign malicious actor to interfere in elections and undermine their members.
The Wednesday hearing saw X's absence, following a series of divisive posts by Musk, the world's richest person, on the app, which he acquired in 2022. Musk has nearly 200 million followers on the app.
Over the weekend, a second apparent assassination attempt was made against former Republican President Donald Trump. Following this, Elon Musk posted and then deleted a message questioning why there were not more assassination threats made against President Biden and Vice President Harris, the Democratic nominee. Both Biden and Harris have previously received assassination threats while in office.
The Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control revealed that European news agencies reported this week that Musk had previously shared content on X that was created by the Social Design Agency, which led a propaganda campaign at the Kremlin's direction.
On Wednesday, Musk spread a false rumor on X about explosives being discovered near Trump's rally in Long Island, New York. According to a statement from Nassau County police, a civilian near the rally site had falsely reported the presence of explosives.
During the Wednesday afternoon meeting, Warner expressed disappointment that no one from X was present. He stated that prior to Musk's acquisition, the company was a "partner."
Some of the most egregious activity has taken place on the platform, according to Warner, where they are absent.
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