Major tech companies are going to start competing on whose brand can be trusted the most, Twitter co-founder Ev Williams said, by seeking to limit misinformation from spreading in an unverified way on the internet.

“Silicon Valley was kind of caught with their pants down” by the revelations of “manipulation and the degree of abuse” on digital platforms, said Mr. Williams at The Information’s Silicon Valley Meets Hollywood event in Los Angeles on Thursday evening. But, he said, “everybody is extremely focused on this issue now. The major platforms have major teams looking at this. These are smart people who are well-intentioned.”