Agents of authoritarian states maintain an active presence on U.S.-based social media platforms, including Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and YouTube.
The current permissive regulatory system—which grants agents of authoritarian states largely unrestricted access to those platforms—creates substantial costs with no significant offsetting benefits.
Acting externally, agents of authoritarian states use U.S. social media platforms to interfere with elections in democratic countries.
Acting internally, they use those platforms to incite violence against disfavored minority groups and to suppress pro-democracy activists.
Congress can and should address these problems by enacting legislation to prohibit agents of authoritarian states from creating or operating accounts on U.S.-based social media platforms.
