Tech executives from Google LLC, Facebook Inc. and Twitter Inc. are expected to return to Capitol Hill to face a Senate Intelligence Committee over Russian meddling in the 2016 U.S. Presidential election.

According to reports, the committee has invited a triumvirate of top execs from each company, although Facebook Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg hasn’t been invited to the party. Instead, Facebook Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg will appear. She will join Twitter’s Chief Executive Jack Dorsey. Sources talking to Buzzfeed News said Google Chief Executive Sundar Pichai has been invited but hasn’t responded to the panel.

This won’t be the first time that the three companies have appeared together to answer questions regarding the 2016 U.S. presidential election and how their platforms may have been exploited by so-called bad actors. In November 2017, execs from the three companies faced Congress over that issue. That time, Facebook was the major target, while Twitter and Google faced less scrutiny.

Buzzfeed further explained that an initial hearing will happen next week, but the real grilling will take place sometime in September. Next week’s hearing will involve social media “experts,” according to the report, so perhaps the questions might be more challenging than those that have come in the past from sometimes technologically challenged lawmakers.

When Zuckerberg faced Congress in a double bill last April, some complained that he wasn’t grilled enough over Russian propaganda appearing on Facebook and the Cambridge Analytica data leak. Chief Technology Officer Mike Schroepfer faced harder questions in the U.K. when he met with a parliamentary committee over similar issues, but it was Zuckerberg they really wanted to speak to.

Last month representatives from Google-owned YouTube, Facebook and Twitter testified in front of a House Judiciary Committee. The meeting was focused more on human and automated moderation and how to moderate evenly and ethically, rather than solely focused on the dissemination of misinformation by political bad actors.

Engadget called the meeting a “stupid sideshow,” concluding, “It seems like all they’re doing is pretending to care about the fake news and bullying on the internet, without actually taking any action.”

Still, Google was moved into action. On Tuesday, YouTube removed some Alex Jones videos from its platform for violating rules relating to hate speech.

Photo: Elliot P./Flickr