The Senate Judiciary Committee hearing Tuesday featuring former Twitter security chief turned whistleblower Peiter Zatko is likely to showcase lawmakers' concerns about his wide-ranging allegations of security lapses and content moderation failures at the company.
But those alarms are unlikely to spur immediate action from Congress to address the behavior that is endemic in many tech companies, and social media platforms in particular.
"I have to say that I'm not overly optimistic that hearings will lead to either any new important insights or to action, to new legislation or new regulatory measures," said Rebekah Tromble, director of the Institute for Data, Democracy and Politics at George Washington University.
"We've seen a number of these hearings occur already," Tromble said in an interview. "They become a sort of locus in the moment for attention and concern, even anger, and then don't translate into concrete action by lawmakers."