OTI Statement for the Record in Congressional Hearing on Combating Online Misinformation and Disinformation

This week, the Subcommittee on Consumer Protection and Commerce and the Subcommittee on Communications and Technology held a joint hearing, entitled “A Country in Crisis: How Disinformation Online is Dividing the Nation.” The hearing addressed the issue of widespread misinformation and disinformation on social media websites, particularly around voting and COVID-19 health information. Misinformation and disinformation around COVID-19, which can substantially impact people’s behavior and ability to monitor the virus, have disproportionately affected communities of color and already marginalized groups.

New America’s Open Technology Institute (OTI) submitted a statement for the record recommending actions by Congress and companies to provide greater transparency and accountability around their efforts to combat misinformation and disinformation. The statement describes a number of mechanisms internet platforms can implement in order to reduce the spread of misinformation and disinformation, such as removing or reducing the spread of content that has been fact-checked and deemed to contain misinformation or disinformation; publishing a detailed description of all misinformation and disinformation-related content policies online; and instituting a public interest exception and notice policy under which platforms leave up content containing misinformation that is posted by elected leaders but label such posts to describe the disputed nature of the post and provide additional context. Furthermore, OTI’s statement calls for the government to take certain steps to improve accountability mechanisms for platforms, such as enacting rules to require greater transparency from online platforms, including regular reporting regarding their content moderation and algorithmic-decision making processes.

The following quote can be attributed to Koustubh “K.J.” Bagchi, senior policy counsel at New America’s Open Technology Institute:

“Combating online misinformation and disinformation is an extremely timely topic as COVID-19 continues to disproportionately impact already marginalized communities, too often leading to harmful, real-life consequences. Misinformation and disinformation on voting and electoral issues are also on the rise, which poses a significant threat to democracy in the United States. Congress must continue working to ensure that companies are held accountable by providing increased transparency and accountability around their efforts to reduce the spread of misinformation and disinformation online to equip the public with reliable information.”