Commission investigating assault on US Capitol cites four social media giants

The Congressional committee investigating the January 6, 2021 assault on the Capitol from U.S it cited YouTube, Facebook, Twitter and Reddit on Thursday for records related to the attack.

Subpoenas were sent to YouTube’s parent company (Alphabet, Google), Facebook’s parent company (Meta) and two other networks in search of records that could help explain “how the spread of disinformation and violent extremism contributed to the violent attack on our democracy, ”confirmed Bennie Thompson, chairman of the committee investigating the assault.

The committee that should establish the responsibility of Donald Trump and his collaborators in the assault on Congress by supporters of the former president, claims to have called them due to “insufficient responses” from the four groups to previous requests for cooperation.

Researchers are particularly interested in two topics: how the spread of false information contributed to the attack, and what measures, if any, social media took to prevent its platforms from becoming breeding grounds for radicalization.

“It is disappointing that after months of work, we still do not have the necessary documents and information to answer these fundamental questions,” Thompson said.

Twitter, formerly the former president’s favorite social network, interests them because some subscribers were supposedly in contact through the platform “for the planning and execution of the assault on the Capitol.”

The researchers say that the social network was notified of the risk of violence before January 6.

YouTube is in the spotlight due to the videos that the protesters would have broadcast live on the platform during the assault.

“We cannot allow our important work to be delayed any longer,” insisted Thompson, urging social media to cooperate.

And time is short: the committee wants at all costs to publish its conclusions before the midterm elections, in November 2022, because if the Democrats lose control of the House in the elections there is a risk that the Republicans will dissolve the Commission.