| Hi, it's Kurt in San Francisco. The latest Senate hearing on Facebook had almost no cringe-inducing moments, but first… Today's top tech news: After three years of covering tech company hearings in Washington, I was unsure what to expect Tuesday when a former employee of Facebook Inc. turned whistle-blower spoke before Congress. I was pleasantly surprised by how thoughtful the whistle-blower, Frances Haugen, was in her testimony and answers. I was even more surprised at how thoughtful our elected officials were in their questions. Typically these hearings have a usual cadence: Tech executives are hauled in to answer questions from an angry group of politicians looking for an easy soundbite or video clip to share on social media. Lawmakers often demand "yes" or "no" answers to complex questions, witnesses are routinely cut off and talked over, and it's common for lawmakers to air personal grievances about Facebook's content decisions. We often get to the end of the hearing having learned very little. The analysis after a big tech hearing often focuses on whether the executive came away unscathed, not whether we witnessed a useful discussion. The last time Twitter Inc. Chief Executive Officer Jack Dorsey appeared before Congress, he tweeted while the hearing was still happening. It was a little funny, but telling as to how valuable he found the entire conversation. Tuesday's hearing felt refreshingly different. The discussion primarily focused on Facebook's actual problems, including its feed ranking algorithms, its impact on teens and CEO Mark Zuckerberg's power. Haugen was helpful in understanding some of Facebook's internal thinking, like its desire to reach teenagers because that's the cohort it needs to maintain its growth. She also helped identify major problems for future discussion, like the claim that Facebook's efforts to fight misinformation predominantly center around English-language news, but most of its users don't speak English. Haugen even offered up some potential solutions, like the idea of organizing user feeds based on the most recent posts, not a ranking algorithm. It's not exactly a new idea, but it was an idea nonetheless. Most importantly, it felt like a discussion, not a firing line. It's true that Haugen is not a company executive, and Facebook has argued that many of the things Haugen discussed were not in her job description while she worked at Facebook. It's also true that many lawmakers took shots at Facebook throughout the hearing. Zuckerberg's decisions to post about a sailing trip on Sunday offered easy fodder. Sadly, I'm not convinced we've turned a corner with these hearings. I assume that the minute another Facebook executive takes the stage—senators are already clamoring for Zuckerberg to return to Washington soon—we'll be back to our usual grandstanding and pageantry. But on Tuesday, Haugen was thoughtful, articulate and helped focus the discussion on issues that actually matter. And that's what these hearings should be about. —Kurt Wagner Bloomberg Businessweek writer Drake Bennett watched hours of programming on Salesforce's new streaming channel and lived to tell the tale. Here are the whistleblower's ideas for fixing Facebook. Advances in AI have expanded what's possible with satellite data. One startup wants to use it to fight climate change. Twitter is selling its MoPub ad platform to AppLovin for $1.05 billion. | 
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