WASHINGTON (NEXSTAR) — Senior officials from social media companies will face questions from senators who fear the sites could fuel individuals to commit acts of domestic terrorism.
On Wednesday, both former and current employees of social media platforms, including TikTok, Facebook, YouTube and Twitter, will testify before the Senate Homeland Security Committee.
“It’s incredibly important that we understand what’s happening,” said Sen. Gary Peters, D-Michigan, the Senate Homeland Security Committee chairman. “Domestic terrorism is a number one form of terrorism right now that we are facing, and a lot of those terrorists have been linked in some way to contact those individuals through social media.”
Peters said he believes the companies’ algorithms are intentionally sending users dangerous content to keep them on their sites for profit.
“The question we have is how do folks who are just using these platforms on an everyday basis suddenly find themselves going down a rabbit hole that can lead to very extreme content,” said Peters.
Republicans, like Florida Sen. Rick Scott, agree this problem is real. Scott hopes the Democrats and Republicans can find solutions without unfairly censoring conservative users.
“We have to look at things that are causing problems for our society,” said Scott. “I think one thing we have got to look at is how biased many of the social platforms have become.”