Democratic members of the House Energy and Commerce Committee wrote a letter on Tuesday addressing the Big Tech platform Facebook, accusing it of causing “polarization” and spreading “misinformation,” according to The Hill.
The letter states that “the committee is deeply concerned about dangerous and divisive rhetoric thriving on Facebook’s platform and is considering legislation to address these issues.” The letter claims, without evidence, that Facebook’s content has included “conspiracy theorists peddling false information to extremist voices urging and organizing violence.”
The letter was signed by four leading members of the committee, including Chairman Frank Pallone Jr. (D-N.J.). In response, Facebook tried to defend itself by pointing out that it had focused overwhelmingly on banning conservative or right-wing accounts, pages, and groups in recent months, labeling all of these targets as “QAnon and militia groups…white supremacist groups,” and “billions of fake accounts.” They also pointed to their “global network of over 80 fact-checking partners to address misinformation.”
Following the mostly peaceful protests at the United States Capitol on January 6th, Facebook, alongside most other Big Tech platforms, has been actively censoring and banning anyone that dares to point out the fact that there was widespread voter fraud in the 2020 election. Nevertheless, Democrats have claimed that Facebook has not done enough, and have called for CEO Mark Zuckerberg to testify before Congress in March.
Facebook was one of the platforms that took the unprecedented step of banning President Donald Trump while he was still in office, which drew widespread criticism and accusations of election interference and collusion. The platform also recently attempted to declare war on the entirety of the country of Australia, banning all Australian news outlets and forbidding Australian users from sharing news articles, before reversing that ban after additional pressure from the Australian government.