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Congressman Gerry Connolly (D-VA), the Ranking Member of the House Subcommittee on Cybersecurity, Information Technology, and Government Innovation, sent a letter to executives at Meta, X Corp, TikTok, Instagram, YouTube, and Snap requesting information on how they plan to ensure their platforms are not used to spread violence or threaten public safety in the months following Tuesday’s election. Connolly was joined by Reps. Casten, Trahan and Shontel Brown.

“The United States faces increased risk of political violence as the 2024 presidential election approaches. Given this threat, it is essential that social media platforms disclose the measures they have in place to prevent their services from being exploited to threaten public safety in the days, weeks, and months following November 5th. Transparency and accountability in this effort are critical to ensuring the integrity of our electoral process and keeping the American people safe,” the members wrote.

In their letter, the members noted we are living in a time of heightened political violence. Just this year, two attempts were made on the life of former President Donald Trump. Meanwhile, violence against elected officials has escalated, including an assault on former Speaker Pelosi’s husband in 2022. In 2023, the U.S. Capitol Police opened more than 8,000 threat investigations, a sharp rise from 902 in 2016. This disturbing trend follows other tragic events, such as the violence perpetrated by white supremacists in Charlottesville in 2017. Many of the individuals involved in these attacks used social media to organize or were influenced by inflammatory content online.

“While we recognize that sharing the finer details of emergency preparedness measures may carry some risks, we strongly believe that transparency with Congress, other platforms, and researchers is essential. In an era marked by escalating political violence, this level of accountability is necessary to ensure platforms are taking appropriate steps to safeguard public safety, uphold democratic integrity, and prevent the failures we have witnessed in the past,” the members added.

They specifically asked the executives to respond to the following questions:

Preparedness and Emergency Measures: Have you implemented, or do you plan to implement, “Break the Glass” or similar emergency measures during and in the follow-up to the 2024 election cycle? If such features have not been built, why not? Have these measures been built into various sub-products across your platform, such as search, recommendations, and other engagement tools? What criteria or indicators will trigger the deployment of these measures? What indicators or thresholds are used to determine when to implement these features? Learnings from Past Elections: Have you deployed similar safety features in other elections this year? If so, what lessons have informed your preparations for the U.S. election? How have your platforms addressed gaps identified during the January 6th attack? Transparency and Collaboration: How are you ensuring transparency around platform activity, particularly in light of the removal of tools like CrowdTangle and the decision to place access to X’s API behind a paywall? What steps are you taking to coordinate with other platforms and stakeholders to detect, mitigate, and de-escalate violent rhetoric effectively? Trust and Safety Capacity: In light of staffing reductions, what resources have been allocated to ensure that your platform is not exploited to facilitate political violence in the days, weeks, and months following the election? How will you ensure that algorithmic changes do not amplify harmful narratives during and after the election?

The full letter is available here.