US lawmakers have grilled executives from Facebook, Google's YouTube and Twitter about what the companies are doing to prevent terrorists from using their platforms to spread propaganda and recruit new followers.
The Senate's commerce, science and transportation committee hearing comes amid growing government scrutiny about misuse of social media platforms and questions on what the companies are doing to prevent it.
And it comes after November's exhaustive congressional hearings on what the companies knew — and did — about Russia's efforts to meddle with the 2016 US elections using their platforms.
According to testimony obtained by CNBC, representatives from the three tech companies said they are, among other things, targeting people likely to be swayed by extremist messages and pushing content aimed at countering that message.
"We believe that a key part of combating extremism is preventing recruitment by disrupting the underlying ideologies that drive people to commit acts of violence. That's why we support a variety of counterspeech efforts," said Monika Bickert, Facebook's head of global policy management said Monika Bickert, Facebook's head of global policy management.