Senate Democrat asks Facebook, Twitter and YouTube



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This is the first major public document request from the committee investigating the January 6 insurgency after it released its bipartisan review in early June into the security breaches that led to the Capitol Riot.

In his letters, the Michigan Democrat called on every company to provide its “policies on monitoring and removing extremist and conspiratorial content that advocates violence, its actions to deal with the growing use of its platforms to promote violence. acts of domestic terrorism and violent extremism, and its use of targeted advertising to reach individuals and groups who engage in these activities. “

Peters asked companies to pass on information about content that promoted, recruited or defended events leading to the insurgency that was removed prior to the attack.

In his letters, Peter also requested more detailed information on the inner workings of Facebook, Twitter and YouTube feeds, asking for “guidelines and parameters for recommending content, including, without limitation, a description of the how their algorithms identify and decide how to recommend content “.

The letters acknowledged that social media sites have pledged to ban posts that encourage or incite violence.

“However, following recent events, questions remain about the effectiveness of these policies,” and the willingness of companies to implement them, according to the letters.

Following the release of its bipartisan report, the Senate Committee on Homeland and Government Affairs refocused its efforts on the broader threat of domestic violent extremism, holding a two-part hearing in August to examine white supremacy and anti-government violence.

Peters’ request echoes the efforts of the House Select Committee investigating Jan. 6, which wrote to more than a dozen social media companies, including Facebook, YouTube and Twitter, seeking to understand how disinformation and efforts to target to overturn the elections by foreign and domestic actors existed. on their platforms. The panel specifically requested data and analysis on domestic violent extremists affiliated with efforts to overthrow the 2020 election, particularly around the January 6 attack.

Responses to letters from the Senate are expected on October 4.

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