Media Center

Civil rights, democracy, and public interest groups are calling out the major social media companies for not doing enough to combat election disinformation and urging them to take steps to combat and curb the rampant problem in the final weeks before this year’s midterm elections. In a letter to the CEOs of Meta (Facebook), Twitter, YouTube, Snap, Instagram, TikTok, and Alphabet, the groups urged the platforms to do more to combat the proliferation of election disinformation on their platforms with a particular focus on combatting the ‘Big Lie’, preventing disinformation targeting non-English speaking communities, and creating more friction to reduce the distribution of content containing electoral disinformation.

Yesterday, Verizon Fios announced that it will drop far-right One America News Network (OANN) from its channel lineup when its current contract expires at the end of July. The move leaves the highly controversial outlet without a major carrier. OANN regularly feeds its viewers disinformation and conspiracy theories – including false and misleading information about the COVID-19 pandemic, the results of the 2020 election, and the attack on the U.S. Capitol on January 6th.

As all of his other efforts to steal the 2020 election failed, Donald Trump summoned, instigated, and ultimately set loose a violent, racist mob on the United States Capitol on January 6th. He is attempting to obstruct the committee’s work.

Donald Trump and his attorneys knew that they were asking then-Vice President to violate the law and his oath of office by rejecting electoral votes on January 6th.   Testimony today before the January 6th Committee by Trump administration officials and attorneys made that abundantly clear. Former president-Trump and his attorney John Eastman showed their contempt for the rule of law and that they were willing to do almost anything to avoid the peaceful transfer of power after losing the 2020 presidential election. That is precisely why Eastman asked for a presidential pardon before Donald Trump eventually left office.  

Today, the Justice Department indicted former Trump White House official Peter Navarro for contempt of Congress for defying a subpoena from the January 6th Select Committee. The former trade adviser was a leader in the Trump White House effort to overturn the results of the 2020 election. In April, Common Cause urged House Members to vote to certify criminal contempt citations against Navarro and fellow White House official Dan Scavino.

Today, more than 120 civil rights, democracy, and public interest groups called on the major social media companies to combat and curb election disinformation on the platforms ahead of this year’s midterm elections. In a letter to the CEOs of Meta, Twitter, YouTube, Snap, Instagram, TikTok, and Alphabet, the groups urged the platforms to take a variety of specific actions, including “introducing friction to reduce the spread and amplification of disinformation, consistent enforcement of robust civic integrity policies; and greater transparency into business models that allow disinformation to spread.”