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Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey and Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg are slated to appear before the U.S. Senate Intelligence Committee this morning at 9:30 am ET (watch here; Sandberg’s prepared testimony here; Dorsey’s prepared remarks here). Google posted what it called “testimony” for the hearing after the committee rejected Google Chief Legal Officer Kent Walker as a witness because he wasn’t high-level enough in the company. In the afternoon, Dorsey will appear solo at the House Energy and Commerce Committee to face grilling by congressional Republicans who have been ramping up their crusade against tech platforms over bias allegations in recent weeks (livestreamed here). Here’s a quick primer on what’s at stake for Twitter, Facebook and Google. [Peter Kafka / Recode]
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Facebook said it will continue an internal audit of alleged anti-conservative bias on its platform, despite the fact that Jon Kyl — the former Arizona senator and GOP lobbyist leading Facebook’s investigation — has been appointed by Arizona’s Republican governor Doug Ducey to replace the late Sen. John McCain in the U.S. Senate. It’s unclear who will head up the effort now. [Harper Neidig / The Hill]
What comes after a trillion? Amazon became the second U.S. company to reach the $1 trillion market cap milestone, just a month after Apple got there first. But Amazon’s policy department had better buckle up — the only certainty on the path to … a quadrillion? … is a hotter spotlight on Amazon’s growing power, and how its dominance impacts the rest of the retail industry, its partners like the United States Postal Service, as well as the cities it calls home. Meanwhile, here’s Amazon’s plan to reach 500 million Indians: Speak their language. [Jason Del Rey / Recode]
The first day of Judge Brett Kavanaugh’s Senate confirmation hearings for a Supreme Court seat was bananas. And yesterday was just opening statements — the real grilling begins today. Here’s an updated list of the most intense moments so far. [Elana Schor / Politico]
Bob Woodward is back to document another scandal-ridden president with “Fear: Trump in the White House,” his new book about what goes on inside Trump’s “Crazytown” White House. Trump’s press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders denounced the book as “fabricated,” without disputing any of the specifics that have been reported in excerpts so far; Woodward said he stands by his reporting. Listen to this early August phone call from Trump to Woodward — after the manuscript had been completed — with Trump saying that now he wanted to participate, and claiming his White House staff hadn’t informed him of Woodward’s interview requests. [Philip Rucker and Robert Costa / The Washington Post]
Instagram is building a standalone app for shopping. The app — which may be called IG Shopping — will let users browse collections of goods from merchants that they follow and purchase them directly within the app. More than 25 million businesses already have Instagram accounts, and two million of them are advertisers; four in five Instagram users follow at least one business. [Casey Newton / The Verge]
Teachers are moonlighting as Instagram influencers to make ends meet. One teacher in Texas told BuzzFeed News that she earns a salary of $50,000 a year — but made more than $200,000 in a year through Instagram. Most “teacher influencers” became Insta-famous through Teachers Pay Teachers, an online platform that allows teachers to sell classroom resources they’ve created, such as worksheets and bulletin board decor. Meanwhile, rock star Ed Droste, frontman of Grizzly Bear, has turned his Instagram into a school supply drive, spotlighting teachers and collecting donated goods via an Amazon wishlist. [Julia Reinstein / BuzzFeed News]
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This article originally appeared on Recode.net.
