Senator Amy Klobuchar really is taking to her role as the Senator most eager to set up a Ministry of Truth in the government. Klobuchar has always been terrible on tech/internet issues, but she’s really taken it to a new level in the past year or so. Over the summer, she released a blatantly unconstitutional bill that literally would empower the Director of Health & Human Services to declare what counts as health misinformation and make social media websites liable for it (imagine how that would have played out under a Trump administration — because Klobuchar apparently can’t remember that far back).
Last week, she sent a ridiculous letter to Mark Zuckerberg demanding he explain Facebook Meta’s handling of misinformation regarding the election. A dozen other Senators — including many who have unfortunately long histories grandstanding against the internet — signed on to the letter as well.
We write to express concern regarding Meta?s role in responding to the rise of online election- related misinformation and disinformation in the United States and the accompanying rise in divisive, hateful, and violent online activity that undermines confidence in the integrity of our elections. The false claim that the 2020 presidential election was stolen fueled a violent and deadly insurrection at the U.S. Capitol on January 6th. The misinformation and disinformation that led to insurrection as well as planning for the insurrection took place largely on online platforms, including Facebook.
Just imagine how much people would freak out if a Senator sent this kind of letter to Fox News — whose false claims about this and many other things have, according to multiple reports, been significantly more responsible for helping such misinformation to be spread. People would, correctly, note the significant 1st Amendment concerns of legislators suggesting that the company did not “properly” handle their editorial discretion.
The letter goes on to demand answers to seven questions — which, again, if equivalent questions had been sent to Fox News, people would rightly freak out about.
- Why did Facebook disable controls after the election ? including algorithmic controls to help stop the spread of disinformation and controls to limit the growth of groups that spread disinformation about the election results?
- Why did Facebook disband its Civic Integrity Team as a standalone unit and disburse its employees to other teams? When was the decision to disband the team made and who made that decision?
- What department or division of Meta is currently responsible for overseeing efforts to prevent the spread of election-related misinformation, disinformation, and violent rhetoric for Meta-owned platforms? How many full-time employees does this department or division have that are dedicated to tracking and countering election-related threats, including in non-election years?
- Who is the senior-most Meta employee that directly oversees that department or division?s efforts?
- What steps is Meta taking to ensure that Facebook users cannot evade the company?s safeguards to continue promoting claims that undermine election integrity and serve to intimidate voters and election workers?
- How many times in the last year has Facebook proactively forwarded information concerning threats to election workers or election officials to relevant law enforcement organizations?
- What steps is Meta taking now to protect the integrity of future elections from the spread of misinformation and disinformation, as well as to address violent threats against election officials and workers?
I mean, imagine sending a letter to Lachlan Murdoch and asking him what Fox News is doing to “protect the integrity of future elections from the spread of misinformation and disinformation.” People would be furious about such an intrusion by government into the editorial practices of an organization. So why is it okay to do it with Facebook?
Even worse, this only helps to add more fodder to the grifter-brigade of Trumpists who are constantly filing silly lawsuits claiming that government demands to clean up misinformation and disinformation online somehow makes those companies state actors (which would then deny them the ability to basically do any moderation at all). Thankfully courts have been able to reject the silliest of these lawsuits so far, but the more that Senators like Klobuchar pressure companies to moderate in the way she wants them to, the stronger argument those grifters will have.
In other words, the only likely end result is creating a much worse situation. Grandstanding may be fun for Klobuchar and other Senators like Richard Blumenthal. It may get them headlines that are useful for their next campaign, and it may get them huzzahs from ultra-partisans online, but it’s so incredibly short-sighted and backwards thinking. Stop this nonsense.
If you want to deal with misinformation, come up with an actual plan to counter it, and stop looking to ignore the 1st Amendment.