Sens. Burr and Warner: Iranian Social Media Takedowns a Sign of Progress
Facebook and Twitter removal of nearly 1,000 suspicious accounts this week signals social media platforms are making progress combating malicious content (see 1808220032), Senate Intelligence Committee leadership told us Wednesday. Ranking member Mark Warner, D-Va., said the committee’s Sept. 5 hearing with Facebook, Twitter and Google will let lawmakers determine what additional “guardrails” are needed from Congress.
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Asked if social media platforms are starting to get ahead of the problem, Chairman Richard Burr, R-N.C., told us that “it’s a positive sign.” Warner regarded the news as good but said relying on their “good efforts” isn’t sufficient: “That’s why we’re having them back in and seeing what should be the guardrails as we move forward on a policy basis.”
Warner called his recent 20 regulatory proposals for social media platforms (see 1808200034) a “menu of items.” Such concepts produced the Honest Ads Act (S-1989), a bill that stalled in Congress but that Twitter and Facebook voluntarily implemented (see 1806120032). In a blog Wednesday, Facebook former Chief Security Officer Alex Stamos, now a Stanford scholar, called the bill a “good start” to setting a legal baseline to address online disinformation. “This is a future-past issue, not a Democrat-Republican [one], and I think there’s some [additional] ideas that are worth further consideration, but that’s what our hearing will be about,” Warner said.
Sen. Thom Tillis, R-N.C., told reporters Facebook and Twitter might be getting more proactive because Cambridge Analytica and election interference dating back to 2014 caught them “flat-footed.” Lacking proper corporate governance is what caused platforms to gain the spotlight, he said. How much of the recently flagged content was “transactional” or systematic, he asked, “Did they just happen to have someone report it, brought their attention to it, or have they kind of put the infrastructure in place that really allows them to kind of identify this?”
On the takedowns, Facebook credited FireEye with a tip about Liberty Front Press, a network linked to Iranian state media. American Action Forum Director-Technology and Innovation Policy Will Rinehart said the collaboration could signal where industry is headed with content moderation. A third-party, self-regulation-driven model might work, he said, citing Interactive Advertising Bureau’s Self-Regulatory Program for Online Behavioral Advertising. This week’s announcement, along with Facebook removal of 32 inauthentic accounts potentially linked to Russia earlier this summer (see 1807310067), shows the social network has “taken a serious turn” in filtering bad content, Rinehart said.
Google announced the removal of dozens of suspicious accounts linked to Iranian state media, including 39 YouTube channels, six blogs on Blogger and 13 Google+ accounts. The YouTube channel had “13,466 total US views on relevant videos,” Google Senior Vice President-Global Affairs Kent Walker said Thursday. Like Facebook, Google is collaborating with FireEye and outside security consultants.
Stamos cited efforts from Microsoft (see 1808210058) and Facebook: The developments show Russia isn't deterred, and Iran is following its example. The U.S. isn't prepared for the 2018 midterm election, but it can get ready for 2020, he wrote: If the U.S. "continues down this path, it risks allowing its elections to become the World Cup of information warfare.” He urged Congress to set legal standards and backed creating a new agency devoted solely to cyber defense. Rep. Denny Heck, D-Wash., tweeted Wednesday that “we must work together to fight disinformation online, or it will get worse.”