Democrats are looking to take Silicon Valley to task for its role in facilitating the riot at the U.S. Capitol on Wednesday, as the party looks to take control of Congress and the White House.
Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., told The Washington Post that companies like Facebook, Twitter, and Google, “bear major responsibility for ignoring repeated red flags and demands for fixes.”
He added that the companies waited “until well after there was blood and glass in the halls of the Capitol,” to act on the riots.
“They have done enduring damage to their own credibility,” Blumenthal continued, “and these events will renew and refocus the need for Congress to reform big tech.”
Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube, which is owned by Google, suspended President Donald Trump’s accounts or removed some of his posts, but Democrats claim that these measures are “long-overdue,” and are pushing for Trump to be permanently banned.
“Facebook has finally taken the long-overdue step of blocking the president’s account — at least for the next 13 days — but I’m deeply frustrated that it took a group of domestic terrorists storming the Capitol before they were willing to do so,” said Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., who chairs the House Homeland Security Committee, in a statement to the Post.
Thompson added, “These corporations should announce a permanent ban of his accounts. Nothing short of that will meet this moment.”
Rep. Frank Pallone Jr., D-N.J., the chair of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, added that they are “actively exploring ways to motivate all social media platforms to address disinformation, extremism, and other online abuses.”
Pallone said, “The events of the last few days have only driven home how important and consequential it is that we all take this seriously.”
Theodore Bunker ✉
Theodore Bunker, a Newsmax writer, has more than a decade covering news, media, and politics.
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