joining me is executive editor kara swisher. the straight talk express of silicon valley. what is all this? >> you know about that. >> you know, it's laudable that they did that. it's a little too late. >> are they giving the money to themselves to research themselves? >> well, you know, that's an important thing to do. interesting google just has been doing a lot of studies on fake news and everything. they all have started to do real research into what's happening which they should have known before, right? it's sort of the -- a little too late. i think it's good they're making this transparent. they're trying to do it ahead of regulation. it's going to require them and should require them to do this. you notice that none of these are barring content. the content which is just like ads. this rt stuff is just like ads. now free ads on twitter. and so these platforms, as i've said, for months now, like they are not benign platforms.