Listen to this articleJacquelyn Martin/AP and Hannibal Hanschke/Pool Photo by way of AP
- Sen. Amy Klobuchar said she does not trust Elon Musk as the brand new proprietor of Twitter.
- She known as for larger content material moderation on social media, the place conspiracy theories run rampant.
- Musk has said he’s a “free-speech absolutionist” who needs Twitter to be a “digital town square.”
Sen. Amy Klobuchar on Sunday said she does not trust Elon Musk as the brand new proprietor of Twitter, noting that social-media companies have profited from misinformation, disinformation, and political-conspiracy campaigns.
The Minnesota Democrat known as for stronger content material moderation on social-media websites whereas on “Meet the Press” on NBC News on Sunday morning when host Chuck Todd requested if she trusts Musk.
“No, I do not,” Klobuchar replied earlier than rebuking social-media companies for “making money” off of amplifying “stuff that’s a bunch of lies.”
Musk, a self-proclaimed “free-speech absolutionist” who has said he needs Twitter to be a “digital town square,” has beforehand criticized content material moderation, Insider’s Travis Clark previously reported.
Musk said Friday that the corporate plans to type a content-moderation council, including that “no major content decisions” would occur earlier than that.
—Meet the Press (@MeetThePress) October 30, 2022
“Elon Musk has said now that he’s going to start a content-moderation board. That was one good sign. But I continue to be concerned about that. I just don’t think people should be making money off of passing on this stuff that’s a bunch of lies,” Klobuchar said on Sunday. “You couldn’t do that on your network, Chuck.”
Todd replied that NBC has “real rules.” News organizations are tasked with fact-checking and verifying the knowledge they share, a primary tenet of journalism.
“That is not a requirement of these companies. And we have to change the requirements on these companies. They are making money off of us. They are making money off of this violence,” Klobuchar said. “I think that it’s one thing if someone is posting stuff on the internet, it is another when they’re making money amplifying it.”
Klobuchar added that social-media companies bear some accountability in staving off political violence, referencing the attack on Paul Pelosi on Friday. A 42-year-old man who broke into Pelosi’s San Francisco dwelling looking for the House Speaker hit her husband with a hammer.
A Los Angeles Times report discovered that the suspect within the assault, David DePape, beforehand unfold right-wing QAnon conspiracy theories, antisemitism, and bigotry on social media.
“When you look at what this guy was looking at, he was looking at just horrendous things you don’t even want to talk about on your show. He was posting antisemitic tropes. He was showing memes that showed violence and all of this election-denying, pro-Trump, MAGA-crowd rhetoric. That’s what we’re dealing with here,” Klobuchar said on Sunday.
Klobuchar listed her 4 priorities within the aftermath of the assault, together with prosecuting “this perpetrator who committed a violent, violent crime” and including extra safety for elected officers.
“Number three is to make sure we’re not electing more election deniers who are following Donald Trump down this road. And then number four, yes, once we get some people in who care about our democracy, we have to do something about this amplification of this election-denying hate speech that we see on the internet,” Klobuchar said.
She additionally said she would “scale back their Section 230 immunity” — a piece of federal regulation that reduces legal responsibility for unlawful issues that individuals say on social media platforms — to “allow people to go after them when they are making money off of amplifying election falsehoods and hate speech.”
