Congresswoman Anna Eshoo, D-Calif., Speaks during a rally at the Capitol Building to ask the Senate to vote on prescription drugs and the House Democrats health package on Wednesday, May 15, 2019.
Tom Williams | CQ-Roll Call, Inc. | Getty Images
Lawmakers are looking beyond social media companies when it comes to cracking down on misinformation.
The representatives Anna Eshoo, D-Calif. And Jerry McNerney, D-Calif., Sent letters to top AT&T executives, Verizon, Roku, Amazon, Apple, Comcast, Charter, Dish, Cox, Altice, Google’s parent alphabet and Disney-owned Hulu on Monday Monday, urging them to deal with misinformation about their services. They linked disinformation and conspiracy theories to the radicalization of the people who invaded the United States Capitol on January 6, as lawmakers moved to assert President Joe Biden’s victory.
“Disinformation on TV has led to our current polluted information environment that radicalizes individuals to commit seditious acts and rejects best public health practices, among other issues in our public discourse,” wrote the lawmakers in the letters.
Eshoo and McNerney asked providers how they determine whether they should have a channel and how they tried to manage the spread of disinformation and incitement to violence between the 2020 elections and the January 6 uprising. Eshoo and McNerney identified Fox News, Newsmax and One America News Network as channels that conveyed misinformation before the turmoil and spread false information about Covid-19.
Parliamentarians also asked companies whether they planned to continue making the channels and why.
The letters show that lawmakers still seek to hold traditional sources of information accountable, while questioning executives from newer platforms, such as Facebook and Twitter, about their roles in amplifying lies. The letters come before a hearing on Wednesday, “Fanning the Flames: Disinformation and Extremism in the Media”, organized by a subcommittee of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, of which Eshoo and McNerney sit.
“As the most watched cable news channel in 2020, FOX News Media has provided millions of Americans with detailed reporting, breaking news coverage and a clear opinion,” the company said in a statement. “The fact that individual members of Congress highlight political speeches that they dislike and demand that cable TV distributors engage in discrimination from a point of view sets a terrible precedent.”
Representatives of the other companies cited in this article did not immediately respond to requests for comment on the letters. Comcast declined to comment.
Disclosure: Comcast owns NBCUniversal, the parent company of CNBC.
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