Biden press conference: President stirs controversy on border, China and Trump and vows to run in 2024

“I didn’t’ have my volume on,” he says.

In his opening statement, the Democrat representative criticised the big tech companies for their role in the 6 January Capitol riots.

“Time after time you are picking engagement and profit over the health and safety,” Mr Doyle said.

“We believe in free expression, we believe in free debate and conversation to find the truth,” he said.

But…

“We must balance that with our desire for our service not to be used to sow confusion, division or destruction.”

The Twitter CEO said if they stopped moderating content, they would be left with a service no user or advertiser would want to use.

“Ultimately we’re running a business, and a business wants to grow the number of customers it serves. Enforcing policy is a business decision,” Dorsey says.

Twitter’s Jack Dorsey was the only big tech CEO to put his hands up and accept responsibility to the direct yes or no question.

“Yes but you also have to take into consideration a broader ecosystem, it’s not just about the technology platforms we use,” Dorsey said.

His response came after this from Zuckerburg: “Our responsibility is to make systems…”

And this from Google’s Pichai: “We always feel a deep sense of responsibility but we worked hard this election effort was one of our most substantive efforts.”

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has cast doubt on his company’s platforms responsibility for increased polarisation and political division in the US during his opening remarks to a Congressional committee examining social media’s role in promoting “extremism and misinformation”.

“I believe that the division we see today is primarily the result of a political and media environment that drives Americans apart, and we need to reckon with that if we’re going to make progress,” he said in a virtual conference on Thursday.

The Independent’s Alex Woodward has more on the opening statements.

Of the 15 presidents of the past 100 years, all but for Biden have held a press conference within 33 days of being sworn into office. Donald Trump did it 27 days in, while Barack Obama outdid Trump by a week at 20 days.

Follow live with The Independent.

Immigration, gun control and climate change are the first topics questioned, with the AP asking “how far he would go” to achieve his presidential agenda.

“The most urgent problem I stated from the outset was Covid-19 and the dislocation for millions and millions of Americans,” Biden said.

The other problems on immigration and gun-control were “long-term” problems.

“But the fundamental problem is getting people some peace of mind so they can go to bed at night,” he said of overcoming the pandemic lockdown hardships.

“My Republican colleagues are going to have to determine whether or not we want to work together or decide if the way in which they want to proceed is to, just decide to divide the country,” Biden says.

And it’s happening because he’s a “good guy”, the president said.

“I guess I should be flattered people are coming because I’m the nice guy, that’s the reason it’s happening, that I’m a decent man, or however it’s phrased. That’s why they’re coming, Biden’s a good guy,” he says.