Khanna: It’s a ‘Dereliction’ That Congress Hasn’t Done Anything About Social Media Disinformation

On Monday’s broadcast of MSNBC’s “Morning Joe,” Rep. Ro Khanna (D-CA) stated that he’s “very concerned” about the rise of misinformation on social media as we approach the election and stated that “Congress still hasn’t done anything. That is a dereliction of duty. We need to pass a resolution.”

Co-host and POLITICO White House Bureau Chief Jonathan Lemire asked, “Congressman, on a related note, we are, of course, in an election year, and what is your level of concern about, on some of these high-tech platforms, these social media platforms, Twitter/X among them, TikTok, others, where we’ve seen a rampant rise of disinformation and misinformation with very little in the way of content controls, no fact-checking to speak of, what is your level of concern about, not just that that wouldn’t be the facts, but rather, this could be a really dangerous combination as we barrel towards November?”

Khanna responded, “I’m very concerned. I think that’s the biggest immediate risk of AI, that you can create these bots, you can create misinformation at huge scale, with huge speed, and that there’s no reasonable content moderation. Look, I came on the show a couple of years back, and I remember Joe’s passionate rant that social media is killing many people in this country, because of misinformation to our youth, leading to suicid[al] thoughts, leading to eating disorders. And look, Congress still hasn’t done anything. That is a dereliction of duty. We need to pass a resolution.”

Follow Ian Hanchett on Twitter @IanHanchett