Chaos in Washington DC fuels mounting calls for Biden crackdown on Big Tech

A Trump supporter sits in the office of US Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi during Wednesday's protests

Credit: AFP

"These isolated actions are both too late and not nearly enough," said Mark Warner, Vice Chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee."These platforms have served as core organizing infrastructure for violent, far right groups and militia movements."

Damian Collins, the former chair of the Culture, Media and Sport Select Committee, said the events on Wednesday evening were predictable. “When we produced the DCMS Select Committee report two years ago we said that disinformation on social media was a harm to democracy,” he said. “And we’ve seen that in action.”

“This should be a part of the scope of harmful content that social media companies have a responsibility not to aggregate and not to amplify,” he continued. “The first step on that would be to reform the Section 230 provisions which make the tech companies neutral platforms.”

However there were calls on Thursday to avoid knee-jerk regulatory action against technology companies. 

“It’s wrong to blame or tar Facebook and Twitter specifically with culpability for yesterday’s events,” Mr Clauser said. “Any American reform that targets policing online disinformation and hate speech must yield to the demands of the First Amendment — that Congress shall make no law abridging the freedom of speech.

Democrat victories in two Senate run-off votes in Georgia this week, which will give the party effective control over the US Senate, are likely to bolster any efforts from Mr Biden to crack down on tech companies. The incoming president will find it much easier to get appointees to key regulators such as the Federal Trade Commission approved by the Senate, and prominent campaigners for greater regulations will have positions running committees.