Twitter and Facebook have defended taking action if users post misinformation about the US election. There have recently been many warnings on messages from US President Donald Trump, for example, when he states that there was massive fraud in the presidential elections of 3 November.
The top executives of both platforms justified their measures in a heated hearing in the US Senate. Prominent Senator Lindsey Graham, a Republican like Trump, attacked the media for being the “ultimate editor” of political news.
He said new regulations are needed. Online services should be more accountable for their decisions to remove, filter, or allow content posted by others. After all, they have the power of governments, says Graham: “There has to be something in return.”
Recently, there was also a Senate hearing on social media’s power, which is increasingly coming under fire. The latest hearing came at the urging of both the left and the right after complaints about “censorship and repression of news articles” during the election campaign. Facebook chief Mark Zuckerberg and Twitter boss Jack Dorsey testified via video connection.
Critical article
The immediate cause was blocking a critical article by the right-wing New York Post newspaper about the Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden. The Senate Republican majority is very upset about this.
