Last week, President Trump used social media to encourage his supporters to storm the Capitol to attempt to maintain his power. In the wake of this violent insurrection against the certification of our election, the President and some of his supporters are claiming that the First Amendment rights of the President have been violated because […]

In a recent interview, former President Obama called the lack of a “common baseline of fact” the “single greatest threat to our democracy.” Our increasingly polluted information environment — including the proliferation of “crazy lies and conspiracy theories” on social media — divides society while undermining public faith in facts, impeding our ability to face […]

One of the most important and difficult goals of media policy is preserving and promoting voices of marginalized communities and diverse perspectives. It’s important because a functioning democracy requires informed points of view from multiple perspectives. There should be media that speak to and speak for everyone in our country. This applies to all media, […]

Thanks in part to the efforts of Senator Maria Cantwell (D-WA), the coronavirus relief bill includes a provision that will make thousands of local journalism outlets newly eligible for emergency federal support under the Paycheck Protection Program.

Tomorrow, Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey and Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg will testify before the Senate Judiciary Committee to discuss censorship, the suppression of news articles, and the companies’ handling of the 2020 presidential election. Last time Dorsey and Zuckerberg were brought in to the Senate to testify, the hearing turned into an opportunity for some […]

Media organizations and social media platforms approached preparing for the 2020 presidential election as if they were going to war. Informed by COVID-19 misinformation conspiracies, demands from both sides of the political aisle to adjust their content moderation policies, and at least four years of orchestrated political misinformation campaigns, our mainstream media and social media […]

In 2016, Facebook, Twitter, and other digital platforms were used as they were designed — to help content go viral — but for destructive purposes. Misinformation that ramped up during the election cycle was not just coming from within the United States, but from a coordinated influence campaign wherein Russian bots produced and disseminated disinformation […]

Today, the U.S. Department of Justice issued recommendations to Congress for amending Section 230 of the Communications Act. This law states that platforms are not liable for third-party content that they carry, and can take down objectionable content without fear of lawsuits.

Yesterday, Public Knowledge sent a letter to Congress providing insight into the flow of misinformation and disinformation over social media platforms to prepare for the joint hearing on “A Country in Crisis: How Disinformation Online is Dividing the Nation.” The hearing will discuss the impact of disinformation on the American public.

Bashing social media for supposed liberal bias has become pretty standard fare for some conservative pundits and politicians. This remains true despite zero evidence of any kind of bias by social media companies against conservative content or Republican politicians. In fairness, Democratic political leaders have made similar accusations. For example, Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) has […]