Disinformation

“Senate treatment of this nomination has been, from beginning to end, sad, shoddy, and shameful, and its treatment of Ms. Sohn a despicable dereliction of duty and honor," said Mike Copps, special adviser to Common Cause and a former FCC chairman. "A win for big-spending special interests, to be sure, but a tragic loss for the common good."

"We're a purple state, so it makes for a bit of a contentious conversation at times around democracy," says Khalif Ali, executive director of the advocacy group Common Cause Pennsylvania.

In recent weeks, industry and big money opposition have continued to run a smear campaign to stall Gigi Sohn’s confirmation to serve as FCC commissioner. These attacks have now turned to a more bigoted and hateful nature in an effort to keep the FCC deadlocked. A deadlocked FCC is unable to advance key priorities that address the communications needs of all households. Common Cause calls on the Senate to condemn these attacks and rapidly confirm her to the FCC.

Yosef Getachew, a media and democracy program director at Common Cause, said allowing a blatantly bigoted and disruptive user like Fuentes back on Twitter sends a clear signal that the platform is failing to enforce its own policies, he added. "You're creating an environment where users may feel threatened, harassed or attacked, or you could be inciting others to engage in offline violence," Getachew said. "That's essentially how the [Jan. 6] insurrection started, given that millions of users were exposed to harmful content and were asked to organize and mobilize offline to try and overthrow our government. It's the same type of pattern." "There are reports out there that these groups are organizing, that they're harassing individuals, that they're building momentum," Getachew said. "A lot of times, those kinds of things are not taken into account. Platforms are just looking to see what's going on in this particular moment, rather than the bigger picture."

Facebook has once again missed the opportunity to be the adult in the room when it comes to checking the clear and present danger that Donald Trump poses to the nation on social media. Instead, the company and its founder Mark Zuckerberg decided to try to plunge headlong into a race to the bottom with Elon Musk and Twitter, irrespective of the threat to public safety and national security.

It would be dangerously irresponsible for the social media platforms to restore Donald Trump’s accounts and risk the further spread of disinformation, hate speech, and the potential for real-world violence. The former president proved himself a clear and present danger on social media on January 6th – and in fact well before that infamous day. He utilized Twitter, Facebook, and other platforms to assemble and incite the mob of insurrectionists who stormed the Capitol that day with tragic and deadly results.