Communications services companies fell as the leaders of some of the nation's biggest social media companies squared off against U.S. senators in a congressional hearing over their companies' roles moderating public discourse.

Facebook Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg, Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey and Sundar Pichai, CEO of Google and YouTube owner Alphabet, faced a Senate committee in a hearing that reflected deep discontent with social-media platforms' power and equally deep divisions about how to address it. The session featured partisan charges and countercharges as well as testy exchanges between senators and the CEOs.

Meanwhile, advertising companies and publishers filed a complaint against Apple with France's competition authority, arguing that privacy changes the smartphone maker plans to roll out are anticompetitive. Starting in early 2021, Apple's operating software will require apps to get opt-in permission from users to collect their advertising identifier, a key number used to deliver targeted ads and check how ad campaigns performed.

After the closing bell, Pinterest posted strong revenue and user growth in the third quarter, as the social-media company saw significantly greater pandemic-fueled engagement than it did in the spring and said it benefited from an advertiser boycott at Facebook.

Write to Amy Pessetto at amy.pessetto@dowjones.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

10-28-20 1712ET