Tech chiefs to testify on social media regulation

Hi! Welcome to the Insider Advertising daily for October 5. Lucia Moses here, filling in for Lauren Johnson.

Today’s news: Tech chiefs to testify, why Pepsi isn’t following Coke into hard seltzer, and Triller user numbers disputed.

The heads of Facebook, Google, and Twitter have all agreed to testify before Congress about social media regulation on October 28, just days before the presidential election.
Lawmakers plan to question them about concerns over Section 230, which shields social media companies from being held liable for the content of users’ posts and gives them authority to develop their own content moderation rules.
Its advocates have called the law “the most important law protecting internet speech,” but it’s increasingly come under fire from both sides of the political aisle — for very different reasons.

Pepsi and Coke have been taking different paths when it comes to selling beverages to pandemic-weary consumers.

He indicated energy drinks offer more long-term potential while hard seltzer could be shorter-lived.

The short-form-video app Triller, a TikTok rival, touted massive user growth last year that some former employees said they believed was inflated, Dan Whateley reported.
Six former employees said the publicly reported monthly active user number was more than five times what they were seeing on some internal metrics.
Triller CEO Mike Lu said the former employees were “disseminating inaccurate information” and that it can validate “each and every one” of its reported users.