09/23/2024 | Press release | Distributed by Public on 09/23/2024 12:19
Washington, D.C. - U.S. Senators Ron Wyden and Jeff Merkley said today they have joined Senate colleagues in calling on 11 of the largest and most popular social media and encrypted chat companies in the United States to increase resources needed to combat 2024 U.S. election administration and certification disinformation.
"We are deeply concerned that the dissemination of election disinformation via your products and/or platforms - if left unmitigated - will suppress voter participation, sow doubt in U.S. democracy and incite political violence," the senators wrote."Considering the increase in election disinformation on digital platforms during recent elections, there is ample cause for concern."
"During the 2020 and 2022 U.S. federal elections, foreign adversaries supported the creation and targeting of election disinformation to undermine our democracy. During the 2020 elections, research showed that election disinformation in Spanish stayed up for longer on social media, as compared to English," the senators continued.
The senators urged Meta, Google (YouTube), TikTok, X (Twitter), Reddit, Snapchat, Amazon (Twitch), Discord, Signal, Telegram and Apple (Messages) to:
The letter was led by U.S Senator Ben Ray Luján (D-N.M.). In addition to Wyden and Merkley, the letter was signed by U.S. Senators Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.), and Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.).
The full text of the letter is here.