WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Lindsey Graham (R-South Carolina), the Chairman of the Subcommittee on Crime and Terrorism of the Senate Judiciary Committee, issued this statement ahead of today’s hearing titled “Extremist Content and Russian Disinformation Online: Working with Tech to Find Solutions”.

The subcommittee will receive testimony from representatives for Facebook, Twitter and Google, as well as experts in terrorism and national security.

“The purpose of today’s hearing is to gather information regarding activity by foreign governments and terrorist organizations to manipulate popular social media sites in order to undermine our national security.

“It is well documented that radical Islamic terrorist groups regularly use popular social media outlets to recruit Americans and individuals throughout the world to their cause. It has become equally clear that foreign governments like Russia – in the 2016 election cycle – were deeply involved in manipulating popular social media websites with misinformation to sow discord among Americans. Today’s hearing is designed to explore the depth of the problem to determine whether or not legislative solutions are necessary and can be constructed consistent with our Constitution and values. Equally important is to make sure that the social media platforms are doing everything possible to combat these growing concerns. Clearly, to date, their efforts have been unsuccessful.

“The manipulation of social media sites by terrorist organizations and foreign governments is one of the greatest challenges to American democracy and a significant threat to our national security in the 21st century.”

#####