This Thursday, January 13, the committee of the United States House of Representatives in charge of the investigation into the seizure of the Capitol requested the appearance of Twitter, Meta, Google and Reddit. In question, ” inadequate responses to requests from investigators.
An event caused by misinformation
A little over a year after hundreds of Donald Trump supporters stormed the Capitol, an event that killed four people, US authorities continue to focus on the role of social networks in this riot. Shortly after this famous January 6, 2021, investigations carried out by various media thus brought to light hundreds of messages published before this date referring to the capture of the Capitol on various social networks. These posts included calls for violence as well as maps of the monument in order to establish a route plan to penetrate it. Separately, an FBI investigation has determined that a far-right militia used Messenger to coordinate their attack on the Capitol.
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In March 2021, the CEOs of Twitter, Meta (formerly Facebook) and Google were forced to testify before Congress to explain their company’s role in spreading false information. If the events of January 6 were mentioned during this hearing, they were not however the main subject.
To dig deeper, a House of Representatives commission specifically appointed to investigate the Capitol takeover requested a variety of documents from Reddit, Meta, Google, and Twitter last August. In particular, she was looking for information on “ the spread of misinformation, efforts to overturn the 2020 election or prevent the certification of results, domestic violent extremism and foreign influence in the 2020 election “.
The commission also asked for details of the policy changes the companies have adopted. or have not adopted regarding the spread of violent extremism, disinformation and malign foreign influence, reports NBC News. ” Two key questions for the special commission are how the spread of disinformation and violent extremism have contributed to the violent assault on our democracy, and what steps – if any – social media companies have taken to prevent their platforms to be fertile ground for radicalizing people to violence commission chairman Bennie Thompson said in a statement Thursday.
The four platforms would not have cooperated enough with the commission
Obviously, the investigators are not satisfied with the answers of the four platforms and are looking for more answers. ” It is disappointing that after months of engagement, we still do not have the documents and information needed to answer these fundamental questions. The special commission is working to get answers for the American people and to make sure nothing like January 6th ever happens again. We cannot allow our important work to be further delayed. “, continued the politician.
In the letter addressed to Parag Agrawal, the CEO of Twitter, to encourage him to appear, it is thus indicated that the social network did not transmit the warnings it received concerning violent threats, nor the documents relating to his decision to suspend Donald Trump’s account indefinitely. As for Reddit, the commission wants to do more research on certain subreddits relating to the former president of the United States.
” The commission believes that Alphabet has important undisclosed information that is critical to its investigation, regarding how Alphabet developed, implemented and reviewed its content moderation, algorithmic promotion, demonetization and other policies that may have affected the events of January 6, 2021. To this day, YouTube is a platform on which user videos spread misinformation about the election “, Can we read in the letter addressed to Sundar Pichai, CEO of Alphabet, parent company of Google and YouTube.
Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Meta, also received a missive telling him that his company had not provided information on its decision to disband its civic integrity team which focused on election risks, including the disinformation. ” Meta failed to provide critical internal and external analysis conducted by the company regarding misinformation, disinformation, and malinformation related to the 2020 election, efforts to contest or nullify the election, and the use of Meta by Domestic Violent Extremists to Affect the 2020 Election “, indicates the letter.
Many messages evoking the capture of the Capitol circulated on social networks before the attack. Photography: dole777 / Unsplash
The response of the targeted companies
Each of the companies, aside from Twitter, has been careful to publicly respond to these calls to appear. ” As President Thompson recently stated, “Facebook is working with [la commission] to provide the necessary information that we have requested”. Since then, Meta has provided documents to the commission according to the schedule requested by its staff – and we will continue to do so. “said Andy Stone, spokesperson for Meta. For her part, Reddit soberly claimed that she continued to ” cooperate with the commission regarding their requests “.
” We have actively cooperated with the select committee since the beginning of its investigation, responding substantially to its requests for documents, and we are committed to working with Congress throughout this process. We have strong rules in place prohibiting content that incites violence or undermines trust in elections on YouTube and Google products, and we enforced those rules in the run-up to January 6 and continue to do so today. today “, assured Google.
Is it already too late?
If these different platforms have taken strong measures following the capture of the Capitol, for example Reddit has banned subreddits and Twitter has deleted thousands of accounts, it is obvious that their economic model, which is based in particular on engagement, is problematic. Facebook’s algorithms have been proven to deliver user-pleasing and polarizing content to drive clicks and comments, even if it contains false information. In recent years, however, many measures have been taken by platforms to counter misinformation and abuse… but it seems that it is already too late.
If the commission decides to sanction social networks for their role in the events of January 6, it seems unlikely that this will fundamentally change the way they operate. Of course, everything would depend on the type of sanction imposed, but the power of the big Internet platforms is such that it is difficult to imagine punishments that would really push them to change their economic model.
Moreover, the rate of hateful content that these sites harbor is so colossal that it is almost impossible to determine which ones played a role in the seizure of the Capitol, explained the director of the FBI Christopher Wray: “ The amount of angry, hateful, unspeakable, combative, even violent rhetoric on social media exceeds what anyone, in their worst imagination, [pense] that there is “, he said. Under these conditions, how to prevent the spread of dangerous ideas on social networks and above all, how to ensure that this content is no longer within everyone’s reach?