In the weeks before the November 2020 election and subsequent Capitol insurrection, podcasts and Facebook postings lit up with allegations of massive voting fraud and calls for violence to address the spreading myth of a stolen presidential election. Social media companies, including Google and YouTube, allowed the use of their platforms to spread the myth and whip up pre-insurrection hysteria. And recent investigations indicate social media companies had the technology to intervene but didn’t. Misinformation sites flourished, including one formed by a Missourian, United Conservatives for America, with more than 11,000 group members on Facebook.
Facebook waited until after the Jan. 6 attack to curtail that latter group’s activities, which prompted founder Jerry Smith to complain to a Washington Post/ProPublica reporter: “Are you going to do away with their free speech? If someone thinks it’s not a fair election … why can’t they have their opinion on whether it’s a fair election or not?”
Freedom of expression is a right that all Americans should exercise and defend. But all should be able to recognize the difference between responsible free expression and deliberate misinformation that incites violence. It’s not always easy to draw a clear line, particularly when it involves internet communications. The kinds of violent discourse outlined in separate investigations by the Brookings Institution, ProPublica and The Washington Post underscore the need for tighter checks by social media companies on the radical groups using their services.
