Democrats ask cable and streaming providers about their role in spreading misinformation ahead of Capitol riot
Rep. Anna Eshoo, D-Calif., speaks throughout a rally in the Capitol Building to name on the Senate to vote on House Democrats’ pharmaceuticals and well being care package deal on Wednesday, May 15, 2019.
Tom Williams | CQ-Roll Call, Inc. | Getty Images
Lawmakers are trying past the social media firms relating to cracking down on misinformation.
Reps. Anna Eshoo, D-Calif., and Jerry McNerney, D-Calif., despatched letters to prime executives at AT&T, Verizon, Roku, Amazon, Apple, Comcast, Charter, Dish, Cox, Altice, Google parent Alphabet, and Disney-owned Hulu on Monday, urging them to handle misinformation on their companies. They linked disinformation and conspiracy theories to the radicalization of individuals who stormed the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6 as lawmakers moved to affirm President Joe Biden’s victory.
“Misinformation on TV has led to our current polluted information environment that radicalizes individuals to commit seditious acts and rejects public health best practices, among other issues in our public discourse,” the lawmakers wrote in the letters.
Eshoo and McNerney requested the providers how they decide whether or not to hold a channel and how they tried to handle the unfold of disinformation and incitement of violence between the 2020 election and Jan. 6 rebel. Eshoo and McNerney recognized Fox News, Newsmax and One America News Network as channels that aired misinformation in the lead-up to the riot and which have unfold false info about Covid-19.
The lawmakers additionally requested the businesses in the event that they deliberate to proceed carrying the channels and why.
The letters present that lawmakers are nonetheless seeking to maintain conventional info sources accountable whereas they grill executives from newer platforms akin to Facebook and Twitter over their roles in amplifying lies. The letters come ahead of a listening to Wednesday, “Fanning the Flames: Disinformation and Extremism in the Media,” hosted by a subcommittee of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, on which each Eshoo and McNerney sit.
Representatives for the businesses named in this text didn’t instantly reply to requests for touch upon the letters. Comcast declined to remark.
Disclosure: Comcast is the proprietor of NBCUniversal, mother or father firm of CNBC.
