US Senator Urges Big Tech To Handle Fake Content Regarding Israel-Hamas Conflicts More Seriously

JAKARTA - Senator Michael Bennet of the United States Democratic Party on Tuesday 7 October asked for information on how tech giants such as Meta, platform X, TikTok, and Google are trying to stop the spread of false and misleading content related to the Israeli-Hamas conflict on their platforms.

"A misleading content has spread on various social media sites since the conflict began, sometimes receiving millions of viewers," Bennett said in a letter addressed to the heads of companies.

Visual images of previous conflicts, video-game footage, and documents changed are some form of misleading content that has flooded social media platforms since Hamas militants attacked Israeli civilians on October 7.

"In many cases, your platform algorithms have strengthened this content, contributing to the dangerous cycles of anger, engagement, and redistribution," Bennett said.

Senator Bennet's comments came after EU industry chief Thierry Breton criticized the companies and demanded that they take tougher steps against disinformation amid the escalation of the conflict.

In his letter, Bennett asked the companies a series of questions to ask for details about their content moderation practices, and he asked for answers until October 31.

Several social media companies have taken some of the steps they have taken in recent days in response to the conflict. The short video app TikTok says it has hired more content moderators who speak Arabic and Hebrew.

Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram, said it had removed or tagged as disrupting more than 795.000 pieces of content in Hebrew or Arabic in the first three days since the Hamas attack. X and YouTube owned by Google also say they have removed harmful content.

However, Bennett said the measures were not enough. "False content wave clearly shows that current policies and protocols are inadequate," Bennett said in his letter.

Bennet has also criticized the four companies for dismissing staff from their trusted and security teams in the past year in charge of monitoring false and misleading content.

According to Bennet, Twitter dismissed 15% of the trust and security team staff and dissolved the relevant board in November 2022 after Elon Musk acquired the company. Musk also cut more staff last month. Meta reduced 100 similar positions in January, while Google reduced a third of the teams that made tools to fight hate speech and online disinformation.

"These decisions contribute to a series of violence, paranoia, and distrust around the world," Bennett said, quoted by Reuters. "Your platforms help create an information ecosystem where basic facts are increasingly being questioned, while sources that cannot be trusted are repeatedly regarded as authoritative."