Social media companies aren t qualified to judge which posts amount to terrorist activity, and they shouldn t be forced against their will to create a Facebook Bureau of Investigations to police their users speech.
— Ron Wyden, Democratic senator from Oregon, reacts to the Senate Intelligence Committee s dropping of a measure that would ve required Internet companies such as Facebook, Twitter and Google to report to the government suspected terrorist communications on their sites. The provision had been included in the 2016 Intelligence Authorization Act. It was opposed by the tech industry, which would ve faced more censorship and free-speech questions than it already does.
Like other groups with messages to spread, terrorist groups are avid users of social media. One study we cited earlier this year said ISIS has tens of thousands of Twitter accounts. Last year, former Twitter CEO Dick Costolo and other company employees received death threats after removing some Twitter accounts associated with the extremist group.
A spokesman for Sen. Diane Feinstein, D-Calif., one of the measure s biggest supporters, said Monday that she regretted having to drop the provision.
Senator Feinstein still believes it s important to block terrorists use of social media to recruit and incite violence and will continue to work on achieving that goal, spokesman Tom Mentzer told The Hill.
Photo from Associated Press
