Sarbanes Urges Facebook, Twitter and Other Social Media Platforms to Stop the Spread of Harmful Disinformation [Video]

WASHINGTON, D.C. – At a joint hearing today held by the House Communications and Technology Subcommittee and the House Consumer Protection and Commerce Subcommittee, Democracy Reform Task Force Chair Rep. John Sarbanes (D-Md.) demanded that social media companies like Facebook and Twitter take more aggressive steps to prevent the proliferation of misinformation on their platforms and stop the spread of disinformation that threatens American democracy and voting rights.

"We know that hostile actors – both foreign and domestic – have grown quite sophisticated in exploiting these social media platforms to sow discord, to widen political division, and far too often … to suppress people's vote," said Congressman Sarbanes. "Yet, as this hearing has shown, these platforms have been reluctant to deploy the full suite of their tools to combat the known threat. And it just doesn't have to be this way…."

Sarbanes continued: "While not perfect, the platforms' response to the COVID-19 outbreak has given us a rough roadmap for how they can proactively — I emphasize that word, proactively — provide users with accurate information about our democracy, our elections, while keeping harmful misinformation designed to suppress the vote from spreading on their platforms."

See below for the Congressman's full remarks.

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