Democrats in Congress are vowing to crack down on social media giants with “a vengeance” for their role in Wednesday’s riot in the nation’s capital.
Leading Dems, who just gained control of the Senate for the first time since 2010, said Wednesday’s unprecedented scare underscores just how little Silicon Valley has done to curb online extremism, according to multiple reports.
“This is going to come back and bite ‘em because Congress, in a bipartisan way, is going to come back with a vengeance,” Sen. Mark Warner of Virginia, the vice chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee, told Politico.
“This is going to come back and bite ‘em because Congress, in a bipartisan way, is going to come back with a vengeance,” Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.), vice chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee, told the outlet.
Rep. Jennifer Wexton (D-Va.) added, “It’s created a greater urgency and a greater willingness, hopefully on both sides of the aisle, to dig in and do the hard work that’s going to take to address this.”
“I think it’s going to be a top priority for us in 117th [Congress] to come up with some sort of plan to address this kind of disinformation,” she said.
Multiple Democrats have already denounced big tech companies like Facebook and YouTube, but also smaller ones like Gab and Parler, over the chaos on the Capitol grounds that left five people dead.
“Congress was attacked yesterday by a mob that was radicalized in an echo chamber that Facebook and other big platforms created,” said Rep. Tom Malinowski (D-NJ).
“I think we have to move very quickly,” Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.) told the Washington Post.
“Regulation of these tech companies in particular is a national security issue. … It needs to be given prominence given what has happened.”
Congress will likely look to overhaul Section 230, the much-debated law that protects big tech from being held liable for the content its users post.
“Yesterday’s events will renew and focus the need for Congress to reform Big Tech’s privileges and obligations,” said Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) on Thursday. “This begins with reforming Section 230, preventing infringements on fundamental rights, stopping the destructive use of Americans’ private data, and other clear harms.”
And Rep. Frank Pallone, chair of the House’s tech-focused Energy and Commerce Committee, reportedly said the panel is “actively exploring ways to motivate all social media platforms to address disinformation, extremism, and other online abuses.”
Dems’ renewed scrutiny comes as Facebook and Twitter suspended President Trump’s accounts for posting about Wednesday’s riots. His access to Twitter was restored Thursday after he deleted three of the offending tweets, while he’s been booted off Facebook “indefinitely and for at least the next two weeks,” according to its CEO Mark Zuckerberg.
In response to the WaPo report, Facebook spokesman Andy Stone noted that CEO Mark Zuckerberg has called on Congress to update Section 230 “to make sure it’s working as intended.
A Twitter spokesperson said the social network is “continuing to evaluate the situation in real-time, including examining activity on the ground and statements made on and off of Twitter.”
“Our global public interest policy — which has guided our enforcement action in this area for years — ends where we believe the risk of harm is higher and/or more severe,” the spokesperson said. “We will keep the public informed, including any further escalation in our enforcement approach.”
Google did not immediately respond to a request for comment Friday.