Posted on 11/14/2018 8:07:19 PM PST by yesthatjallen
Rhode Island Rep. David Cicilline (D) sharply criticized tech giant Facebook on Twitter on Wednesday evening, arguing that the social media company can't be trusted any longer to regulate itself.
In a series of tweets, the lawmaker ripped into Facebook executives over a New York Times report detailing how the company used a Republican opposition research firm to link public detractors of the company to billionaire Democratic donor George Soros amid criticism of Facebook for its use by Russian operatives to influence Americans during the 2016 election. The report was based mainly on anonymous, insider accounts.
"We’ve known for some time that Facebook chose to turn a blind eye to the spread of hate speech and Russian propaganda on its platform," Cicilline wrote Wednesday night.
"Now we know that once they knew the truth, top Facebook executives did everything they could to hide it from the public by using a playbook of suppressing opposition and propagating conspiracy theories," he added. "It is long past time for us to take action."
Cicilline, who is the ranking member and likely incoming chairman of the Judiciary Subcommittee on Regulatory Reform, Commercial and Antitrust Law and also sits on the House Subcommittee on Courts, Intellectual Property and the Internet, also accused Facebook executives of attempting to "buy Congress's silence" on the issue and prevent lawmakers from taking meaningful action.
"I am confident that, despite Facebook’s best efforts to buy Congress’s silence, the will of the American people will prevail," he wrote.
"Next January, Congress should get to work enacting new laws to hold concentrated economic power to account, address the corrupting influence of corporate money in our democracy, and restore the rights of Americans," he added, referring to the incoming Democratic majority set to take office in January.
Facebook has faced criticism from lawmakers and others for months over its response to reports that Russian operatives sowed divisive and often false information to Americans in swing states about key issues during the 2016 election campaign.
A Facebook spokesperson responded to the Times report Wednesday by saying that the company was doing what it could to root out "bad actors."
"This has been a tough time at Facebook and our entire management team has been focused on tackling the issues we face," a Facebook spokesperson said. "While these are hard problems we are working hard to ensure that people find our products useful and that we protect our community from bad actors."
Strangely I have to agree with that statement.
I agree, social media won’t regulate themselves. What I don’t get is that this DEMOCRAT is whining about it? Social media is sooooooooooo much in bed with the ‘rats that I don’t understand the issue. Perhaps this ‘rat wants tighter, socialist controls.
That is sort of my point. He did not completely tow the party line though he did engage in censorship. In fact, I posted a link to this article on my Facebook page and it was pulled.
Wow!!
Now he MUST submit or be ruined
If he isn’t already.
Theil over at paypal is one of the few that can survive as a republican. But he’s got the gay shield to protect him some.
Still brave to come out as R in Silicon Valley.
There must have been something positive said on Facebook about President Trump to generate this reaction.
That’s like saying that the Second Amendment only applies to muskets and not to semi-automatic weapons.
I’m making the distinction. I don’t think they are a free press.
There’s too much chance for our side to type what it believes and have it seen by the world.
That can’t happen /s
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