The US House committee investigating the January 6 insurrection has turned its attention to social media companies.
The committee has issued subpoenas to social media companies Alphabet, Meta, Reddit and Twitter, chairman Bennie Thompson said on Thursday.
The panel said the subpoenas were issued after “inadequate” responses to “prior requests for information” from the four companies.
The committee has spent months investigating the events of January 6, 2021, when a mob of angry supporters of former president Donald Trump stormed the US Capitol building, temporarily halting the certification of the Electoral College vote count.
The mob ransacked one of the most hallowed buildings in the US, causing more than $1 million in damage. At least five people, including a Capitol Police officer, died as a result.
After the events, it became clear that many far-right extremist groups had organised online, using social media platforms to spread their messages.
“Two key questions for the select committee are how the spread of misinformation and violent extremism contributed to the violent attack on our democracy, and what steps, if any, social media companies took to prevent their platforms from being breeding grounds for radicalising people to violence,” Mr Thompson said.
Many who stormed the Capitol filmed and live streamed their involvement.
The committee members hope the subpoenas will show how Alphabet, the parent company of Google and YouTube, moderated videos and live streams of the event.
“The select committee believes Alphabet has significant undisclosed information that is critical to its investigation, concerning how Alphabet developed, implemented and reviewed its content moderation, algorithmic promotion, demonetisation and other policies that may have affected the January 6, 2021, events,” the committee wrote to Alphabet’s chief executive, Sundar Pichai.
In the subpoena addressed to Mark Zuckerberg, chief executive of Facebook parent company Meta, the panel said: “According to public reports, people used Meta’s platforms in the months and days before January 6, 2021, to share messages of hate, violence and incitement, to spread misinformation, disinformation and conspiracy theories.”
The subpoena also referred to Facebook whistleblower Frances Haugen's revelations about how the company’s algorithms work.
The committee said the social media companies' failure to provide “documents and information necessary” to its investigation was “disappointing".
Alphabet responded to its subpoena, saying the company had been co-operating with the committee from the very beginning.
“We have strict policies prohibiting content that incites violence or undermines trust in elections across YouTube and Google's products,” the company said.
Meta said it was working with the committee and had provided the necessary information.
“Meta has produced documents to the committee on a schedule committee staff requested and we will continue to do so,” a company representative reported.
City's slump
L - Juventus, 2-0
D - C Palace, 2-2
W - N Forest, 3-0
L - Liverpool, 2-0
D - Feyenoord, 3-3
L - Tottenham, 4-0
L - Brighton, 2-1
L - Sporting, 4-1
L - Bournemouth, 2-1
L - Tottenham, 2-1
Sole survivors
- Cecelia Crocker was on board Northwest Airlines Flight 255 in 1987 when it crashed in Detroit, killing 154 people, including her parents and brother. The plane had hit a light pole on take off
- George Lamson Jr, from Minnesota, was on a Galaxy Airlines flight that crashed in Reno in 1985, killing 68 people. His entire seat was launched out of the plane
- Bahia Bakari, then 12, survived when a Yemenia Airways flight crashed near the Comoros in 2009, killing 152. She was found clinging to wreckage after floating in the ocean for 13 hours.
- Jim Polehinke was the co-pilot and sole survivor of a 2006 Comair flight that crashed in Lexington, Kentucky, killing 49.
F1 The Movie
Starring: Brad Pitt, Damson Idris, Kerry Condon, Javier Bardem
Director: Joseph Kosinski
Rating: 4/5
The National's picks
4.35pm: Tilal Al Khalediah
5.10pm: Continous
5.45pm: Raging Torrent
6.20pm: West Acre
7pm: Flood Zone
7.40pm: Straight No Chaser
8.15pm: Romantic Warrior
8.50pm: Calandogan
9.30pm: Forever Young
ELIO
Starring: Yonas Kibreab, Zoe Saldana, Brad Garrett
Directors: Madeline Sharafian, Domee Shi, Adrian Molina
Rating: 4/5
US PGA Championship in numbers
1 Joost Luiten produced a memorable hole in one at the par-three fourth in the first round.
2 To date, the only two players to win the PGA Championship after winning the week before are Rory McIlroy (2014 WGC-Bridgestone Invitational) and Tiger Woods (2007, WGC-Bridgestone Invitational). Hideki Matsuyama or Chris Stroud could have made it three.
3 Number of seasons without a major for McIlroy, who finished in a tie for 22nd.
4 Louis Oosthuizen has now finished second in all four of the game's major championships.
5 In the fifth hole of the final round, McIlroy holed his longest putt of the week - from 16ft 8in - for birdie.
6 For the sixth successive year, play was disrupted by bad weather with a delay of one hour and 43 minutes on Friday.
7 Seven under par (64) was the best round of the week, shot by Matsuyama and Francesco Molinari on Day 2.
8 Number of shots taken by Jason Day on the 18th hole in round three after a risky recovery shot backfired.
9 Jon Rahm's age in months the last time Phil Mickelson missed the cut in the US PGA, in 1995.
10 Jimmy Walker's opening round as defending champion was a 10-over-par 81.
11 The par-four 11th coincidentally ranked as the 11th hardest hole overall with a scoring average of 4.192.
12 Paul Casey was a combined 12 under par for his first round in this year's majors.
13 The average world ranking of the last 13 PGA winners before this week was 25. Kevin Kisner began the week ranked 25th.
14 The world ranking of Justin Thomas before his victory.
15 Of the top 15 players after 54 holes, only Oosthuizen had previously won a major.
16 The par-four 16th marks the start of Quail Hollow's so-called "Green Mile" of finishing holes, some of the toughest in golf.
17 The first round scoring average of the last 17 major champions was 67.2. Kisner and Thorbjorn Olesen shot 67 on day one at Quail Hollow.
18 For the first time in 18 majors, the eventual winner was over par after round one (Thomas shot 73).
Result
Arsenal 4
Monreal (51'), Ramsey (82'), Lacazette 85', 89')
West Ham United 1
Arnautovic (64')
