Social media giants subpoenaed over role in January 6 attack on US Capitol

Washington: The US House Select Committee investigating the January 6 attack on the Capitol subpoenaed Meta, Alphabet, Twitter and Reddit on Thursday, seeking information about how their social media sites were used to help fuel misinformation in a failed bid to overturn the 2020 election.

“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,” panel chairman Representative Bennie Thompson said in a statement.

The assault on the Capitol on January 6.Credit: Bloomberg

“It’s disappointing that after months of engagement, we still do not have the documents and information necessary to answer those basic questions.”

The subpoenas to the tech companies are the latest development in the House Select Committee’s investigation into the causes of the attack on the US Capitol by former President Donald Trump’s supporters, and the role played by Trump, who has pushed false claims he lost a rigged election to Joe Biden.

The committee has issued more than 50 subpoenas and heard from more than 300 witnesses. It is expected to release an interim report in the northern summer and a final report in the autumn.

Spokespeople for the four social media companies could not be immediately reached for comment.

In his letter, Thompson outlined the way the companies were complicit in the deadly insurrection perpetuated by supporters of Donald Trump and far-right groups.

YouTube, owned by Alphabet, was the platform where a significant amount of communication took place “relevant to the planning and execution” of the siege against the Capitol, “including livestreams of the attack as it was taking place,” the letter stated.

The committee stated how Meta, formerly known as Facebook, was reportedly used to exchange hateful, violent and inciting messages between users as well as spread misinformation that the 2020 presidential election was fraudulent in an attempt to coordinate the “Stop the Steal” movement.

On Reddit, the “r/The_Donald” ‘subreddit’ community grew significantly, the letter said, before members migrated to an official website where investigators believe discussions around the planning of the attack were hosted.

Employees take a photo with the company’s new name and logo Meta outside its headquarters in Menlo Park, California.Credit: AP

The letter outlined how Twitter was warned about the potential violence that was being planned on its platform in advance of the attack and how its users engaged in “communications amplifying allegations of election fraud, including by the former President himself.”

The committee made its initial request for the documents from 15 social media companies in August. The requests were also issued to TikTok, Parler, Telegram, 4chan, 8kun and other platforms.

The subpoenas come as the nine-member committee continues its wide-reaching investigation into how a mob was able to infiltrate the Capitol and disrupt the certification of Democrat Joe Biden’s presidential victory, in what was the most serious assault on Congress in two centuries.

The committee of seven Democrats and two Republicans has interviewed more than 340 people and issued dozens of subpoenas to those in Trump’s inner circle, including his former chief of staff, as well as requests to their own colleagues in the House.

The social media subpoena comes as Stewart Rhodes, the founder and leader of the far-right Oath Keepers militia group, was arrested and charged with seditious conspiracy in the January 6 attack on the US Capitol.

Rhodes is the highest-ranking member of an extremist group to be arrested in the deadly siege and it is the first time the Justice Department has brought a seditious conspiracy charge in connection with the attack on the Capitol.

On Wednesday, the committee requested an interview with House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy.

McCarthy as well as GOP Representatives Jim Jordan of Ohio and Scott Perry of Pennsylvania have denied the committee’s request to sit down for an interview or turn over documents related to their conversations on January 6, 2021, with Trump or those close to him as hundreds of his supporters beat police, stormed the building and interrupted the certification of the 2020 election.

Reuters, AP

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