Facebook, Twitter and social media’s road to federal regulation

The extent of Russia’s meddling in the 2016 US presidential election remains unclear, but it’s no secret that social media played a major role. This year brought with it a great deal of scrutiny for tech giants, particularly Facebook, Twitter and Google. These three companies came under the US government’s microscope after news that Kremlin bots and trolls, spearheaded by a group known as the Internet Research Agency, used their sites to tamper with the 2016 presidential election. They spread misinformation (fake news!) and dubious ads across Facebook, Twitter and Google to hundreds of millions of users in the US, with the aim of fomenting hostility among Americans. And it’s safe to say they succeeded.

Still, despite promises from tech companies that these issues are being addressed, recent events raise an urgent question: Should the government start regulating political ads and speech on Facebook, Twitter and Google? There are lawmakers on both sides of the aisle who believe so. Indeed, there’s already legislation being proposed. With the Honest Ads Act, for example, the government is proposing that online advertising be regulated the same way print, radio and television are. This would require more transparency from the likes of Facebook, Twitter and Google about who’s paying for political advertisements on their apps or sites.

Senator Mark Warner (D-VA) told NPR earlier this year that the bill, which he introduced alongside Senators John McCain (R-AZ) and Amy Klobuchar (D-MN), was born after months of asking social media companies to “come clean” with the level of Russian interference that took place in 2016. “We don’t want to slow down innovation. We don’t want to slow down individuals’ willingness to use the internet or use these social media platforms,” he said. “But in an era where $1.4 billion was spent on political advertising in the 2016 campaigns — and that number [is] only going to go up — there needs to be equality between traditional radio and broadcast and social media and internet political advertising.”

If Facebook, Twitter and Google were to be regulated, that could be one way to hold them accountable for their oversights and force them to be more transparent — something they roundly failed to do both during and after the 2016 election. Of course, as is often the case with any proposed legislation, it could take some time for the Honest Ads Act or other bills like it to become law. Or it could never happen at all.

Schiff said there are representatives and senators from both parties interested in legislation that would regulate political-ad disclosures on social media. He also said that, down the road, it will be necessary for the intelligence community to work closely with tech companies to prevent any future attacks on our country’s democratic process.

“When the intelligence community gathers information that a foreign adversary is exploiting the use of these platforms in a clandestine way to influence our elections,” he said, “it should have a mechanism like we use in the counterterrorism context to share that information with the technology companies.” Schiff said that ultimately, these joint efforts between the government and tech firms will be crucial to prepare for any upcoming elections.

“When the intelligence community gathers information that a foreign adversary is exploiting the use of these platforms in a clandestine way to influence our elections, it should have a mechanism like we use in the counterterrorism context to share that information with the technology companies.”

He said that, as part of the Intelligence Committee hearings, he’s asked Facebook, Twitter and Google to create a joint report on how Russia played their systems, so that the committee can be fully informed before making any recommendations that might affect how they do business. “Although the companies have yet to commit to such a report,” he said, “it is my hope that they will do so.”

If a bill like the Honest Ads Act does become law, tech companies could be prone to government fines if they don’t follow set regulations. That would be akin to when US wireless carriers violate consumer disclosures and the FCC has to step in, often slapping them with hundreds of millions of dollars in fines.

What’s clear is that the government isn’t interested in regulating your tweets or Facebook posts about how much you love or hate Donald Trump. (That would be a clear violation of the First Amendment.) Instead, the committee simply intends to keep a better eye on the political ads that you see on social media, to ensure that foreign agents aren’t interfering in our elections. This doesn’t mean you, the user, can be out there promoting hate speech on your timeline, since Twitter or Facebook might take it upon themselves to ban you. (Unless you’re the president of the United States, of course.)

Levinson said that, generally speaking and no matter the reason, the US government shouldn’t try to regulate Facebook, Twitter, Google or any other social media company because “they have no idea what they’re talking about” or how the internet works. If anything, he said, these tech giants should be working harder on self-regulating, which would mean depending less on algorithms and more on humans.

For Levinson, the ideal system to fight bots promoting sketchy political ads and fake news would be to identify fake, ill-minded accounts more quickly and to cancel them immediately. He also said there needs to be a better way to distinguish fake news from real articles or a post from people simply expressing their opinion — even if certain people don’t agree with it. In order for that to happen and be successful, though, Levinson said algorithms from Facebook and Twitter need to experience some trial and error before they can be perfected. That’s why you sometimes see bogus content slip through the cracks.

Levinson added that it’s hard to say how the government could enforce rules on social media companies, but if it comes close to infringing on people’s First Amendment rights, that would cause some civil issues. Levinson said he imagines there would be thousands of cases in the courts, noting that he believes any regulation could be a real threat to the internet as we know it. “Everyone’s so concerned about net neutrality. I don’t really care about whether corporations dominate or don’t dominate, there’s no way any corporation’s going to tell anyone what they can or can’t say,” he said. “But I am concerned about the government dominating and destroying the essence of the internet.“

Regardless of what happens, one thing is indisputable: The government and these tech companies will need to work more closely in 2018 and beyond, in order to ensure that history doesn’t repeat itself. It won’t be easy, because there are business models and, most importantly, people’s First Amendment rights at stake. Hopefully Facebook, Twitter, Google and the government will figure out the best way to keep Russian (and other foreign) trolls and bots at bay. Otherwise we’ll be talking about this again in 2020.

Check out all of Engadget’s year-in-review coverage right here.