⁍ The U.S. Senate Commerce Committee will issue subpoenas to Twitter, Google and Facebook if they do not agree to testify at a hearing on Oct. 1.

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⁍ The hearing will discuss a legal immunity known as Section 230 that technology companies have when it comes to liability over content posted by users.

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⁍ Republican President Donald Trump has made holding tech companies accountable for allegedly stifling conservative voices a theme of his administration.

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– If Twitter, Facebook, Google, and other tech giants refuse to testify before a Senate hearing next month, the Senate Commerce Committee will issue subpoenas, Reuters reports. The Oct. 1 hearing will discuss Section 230, a legal immunity granted to tech companies when it comes to liability over content posted by users. President Trump has made holding tech companies accountable for allegedly stifling conservative voices a theme of his administration. As a result calls for a reform of tech’s prized legal immunity have been intensifying ahead of the elections but has little chance to be approved by Congress this year. The committee will issue subpoenas if the technology companies do not agree to appear in front of the committee by Thursday night. On Wednesday, Trump met with nine Republican state attorneys general to discuss the fate of Section 230 after the Justice Department unveiled a legislative proposal aimed at reforming the law. “In recent years, a small group of powerful technology platforms have tightened their grip over commerce and communications in America,” Trump told reporters after the meeting. “Every year countless Americans are banned, blacklisted, and silenced through arbitrary or malicious enforcement of ever-shifting rules.”