Disinformation Nation: Social Media’s Role in Promoting Extremism and Misinformation

Facebook, Google, and Twitter operate some of the largest and most influential online social media platforms reaching billions of users across the globe. As a result, they are among the largest platforms for the dissemination of disinformation and extremist content.

The Subcommittee on Communications and Technology and the Subcommittee on Consumer Protection and Commerce of the Committee on Energy and Commerce held a joint hearing “Disinformation Nation: Social Media’s Role in Promoting Extremism and Misinformation” on March 25.

The subcommittees heard testimony from Mark Zuckerberg, chairman and chief executive officer of Facebook; Sundar Pichai, chief executive officer of Google; and Jack Dorsey, chief executive officer of Twitter.

Facebook pushed for reforms to Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act that wouldn’t resolve the issues. Google defended Section 230 and pointed to its own often mild or delayed efforts to contain election disinformation that ultimately snowballed into the attack on the U.S. Capitol. Twitter mostly looked forward rather than back, pointing to initiatives to make its own algorithms transparent and to invite more community-level moderation efforts.

International Information Academy’s experts are looking forward to new legislative proposals in the US Parliament in respect to Rule of Law and Human Rights.