The sign for the J. Edgar Hoover FBI Building can be seen through fences and barbed wire surrounding the construction on the side of the building in Washington, DC, U.S., August 17, 2022.
Leah Millis | Reuters
Leaders of the House Oversight Committee asked eight social media companies on Friday to crack down on online threats against law enforcement, which are said to be on the rise following the FBI raid on former President Donald Trump’s home. Mar-a-Lago.
Lawmakers sent letters seeking information and documents from Twitter, TikTok, Facebook parent company Meta and Telegram, as well as the Trump-backed app Truth Social. Three other platforms with predominantly conservative followings, Rumble, Gettr and Gab, were also contacted.
The letters request data on threats posted online since the Aug. 8 raid on the former president’s Palm Beach, Florida, residence, along with information about the company’s policies for reporting and removing threats.
Statements by Trump and his Republican allies about the search may have “escalated a flood of violent threats on social media that have already led to at least one death,” Oversight Chairman Rep. Carolyn Maloney, DN.Y., and Chair of the Subcommittee on Homeland Security. Rep. Stephen Lynch, D-Mass., wrote in the papers.
They cited a warning from the FBI and Department of Homeland Security that threats against officers have increased online since agents executed the search warrant at Mar-a-Lago, according to NBC News.
Democrats were also referring to a man who fired a nail gun into an FBI office in Cincinnati, Ohio, then fled before being killed in a shootout with police. That man, identified by police as Ricky Shiffer, apparently posted numerous threatening messages on Truth Social after the Mar-a-Lago raid.
“We urge you to take immediate action to address any threats of violence against law enforcement that appear on your company’s platforms,” Maloney and Lynch wrote in the letters.
Reps. Carolyn Maloney, D-N.Y., and Stephen Lynch, D-Mass., are seen during a House Oversight and Reform Committee hearing in the Rayburn Building on a resolution on whether to retain Attorney General William Barr and Secretary Commerce Wilbur Ross. contempt of Congress on Wednesday, June 12, 2019.
Tom Williams | Cq-roll Call, Inc. | Getty Images
“The committee strongly supports the First Amendment rights of all Americans to speak out about their government’s actions and law enforcement issues, including on social media platforms. However, threats and incitements of deadly violence are unacceptable and against the law,” they write. .
Committee leaders said they are also considering “whether legislative reform is necessary to protect law enforcement personnel and increase coordination with federal authorities.”
Trump himself revealed the search in a frantic statement on the evening of August 8, declaring that his resort home was “under siege” by FBI agents.
Multiple Republican officials quickly issued statements criticizing the attack and supporting Trump, the de facto leader of the GOP who is considering a presidential run in 2024. Some, like House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., suggested that the Department of Justice during the administration of President Joe Biden was armed against his political opponents.
Even former Vice President Mike Pence, whom Trump has considered an enemy since Pence refused to reject key electoral votes that confirmed Biden’s victory in the 2020 election, said he felt “deep concern” about the “unprecedented” move.
The letters sent Friday morning cited multiple threatening posts from Truth Social that “coincide” with rhetoric from GOP leaders.
“The Second Amendment is not about shooting deer! Lock and load!” a post read. “Arm up! We’re about to go into civil war!” wrote another user.
Maloney and Lynch are asking the companies to send the requested information by Sept. 2.
