Rep. Eshoo Calls on Social Media Companies to Quickly Remove Wildfire Disinformation

WASHINGTON, Sept. 16 -- Rep. Anna G. Eshoo, D-California, issued the following news release:

Representative Anna G. Eshoo (CA-18) wrote to the CEOs of Twitter, YouTube, and Facebook today expressing her serious concerns about the proliferation of wildfire disinformation on their platforms and the harmful impact of this content on the ability of first responders to combat wildfires. Rep. Eshoo called on Twitter and YouTube to remove misinformation and disinformation that is thwarting the efforts of public safety officials to respond to the wildfires, and called on Facebook to remove harmful information more quickly.

"I'm extremely troubled by reports that disinformation about the wildfires on your platform is thwarting the efforts of first responders to respond to wildfires, including evacuating residents in harm's way," Rep. Eshoo wrote to the companies. "Last week, the press reported a proliferation of social media posts falsely alleging that Antifa started recent wildfires that are devastating much of the western part of our country. These posts have caused a deluge of 9-1-1 calls, leading to several local law enforcement agencies and the FBI to publicly plea for people to stop spreading misinformation and to stop calling 9-1-1 with rumors...The incident is even more problematic because Russia is a key spreader of the lie that Antifa is linked to wildfires."

"I urge you to immediately and expeditiously remove tweets that are overwhelming law enforcement efforts to combat wildfires," Rep. Eshoo wrote to Twitter and YouTube. "To do otherwise is dangerous."

"I urge you to revamp your procedures to more expeditiously remove misinformation and disinformation that directly or indirectly threatens public safety," Rep. Eshoo wrote to Facebook. "It took Facebook days to remove posts containing wildfire disinformation. This just isn't good enough."

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September 15, 2020

To: Mr. Jack Dorsey, CEO and Co-Founder, Twitter, Inc., 1355 Market Street, Suite 900, San Francisco, California 94103

Dear Mr. Dorsey,

The Western United States is experiencing a historic wildfire season. As I write to you, over 100 large wildfires are burning across eight states, and more than 3 million acres have burned this year in California alone. At a time when states are working nonstop to contain these fires, I'm extremely troubled by reports that disinformation about the wildfires on your platform is thwarting the efforts of first responders to respond to wildfires, including evacuating residents in harm's way. I urge you to immediately and expeditiously remove misinformation and disinformation about wildfires that is thwarting the efforts of public safety officials.

Climate change has made California and other areas across the Western U.S. a tinderbox as increased temperatures have produced more dry fuel that leads to longer and more destructive wildfire seasons. California experienced five of its twenty largest fires on record this year, and another five occurred within the last decade./1 Although many of the current fires were ignited by an unusual lightning siege, the immediate cause of most wildfires is human activity. Some are caused by arson, but generally most are unintentional./2

Last week, the press reported a proliferation of social media posts falsely alleging that Antifa started recent wildfires that are devastating much of the western part of our country./3 These posts have caused a deluge of 9-1-1 calls, leading to several local law enforcement agencies and the FBI to publicly plea for people to stop spreading misinformation and to stop calling 9-1-1 with rumors./4 The disinformation is also causing potentially violent encounters. Three journalists reporting on the wildfires in Oregon claimed they "got 3 guns pulled on us at a militia style checkpoint"/5 by "people who legitimately think 'antifa liberals' are setting these towns on fire."/6

The incident is even more problematic because Russia is a key spreader of the lie that Antifa is linked to wildfires. On September 9, 2020, RT published an article with the headline, "'Antifa are thrilled to hear this': Portland police ask protesters not to start blazes amid statewide wildfire emergency."/7 The U.S. Intelligence Community identified RT (formerly known as Russia Today), as "[t]he Kremlin's principal international propaganda outlet," finding that RT meddled in our 2016 elections consistently in favor of then-candidate Donald Trump.8

This isn't the first time disinformation about the cause of wildfire has spread on social media. In January of this year, a coordinated disinformation campaign sought to undermine the link between wildfires in Australia and climate change./9 I understand that content moderation at scale is difficult. However, I cannot understand why Twitter is still leaving up tweets/10 and videos/11 containing wildfire disinformation after federal/12 and local law enforcement,/13 journalists,/14 fact-checkers,/15 and misinformation experts/16 have all debunked these allegations. A simple search on Twitter for relevant tweets shows that many of these tweets have hundreds or even thousands of retweets and likes. I urge you to immediately and expeditiously remove tweets that are overwhelming law enforcement efforts to combat wildfires. To do otherwise is dangerous.

Sincerely

Anna G. Eshoo

Member of Congress

See footnotes here: https://eshoo.house.gov/sites/eshoo.house.gov/files/Rep.%20Eshoo%20ltr%20to%20Twitter%20re%20wildfire%20disinfo%20-%209.15.20.pdf

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September 15, 2020

To: Mr. Sundar Pichai, CEO, Google, LLC, Alphabet, Inc., 1600 Amphitheatre Parkway, Mountain View, California 94043

Ms. Susan Wojcicki, CEO, YouTube Inc., 901 Cherry Avenue, San Bruno, California 94066

Dear Mr. Pichai and Ms. Wojcicki,

The Western United States is experiencing a historic wildfire season. As I write to you, over 100 large wildfires are burning across eight states, and more than 3 million acres have burned this year in California alone. At a time when states are working nonstop to contain these fires, I'm extremely troubled by reports that disinformation about the wildfires on your platform is thwarting the efforts of first responders to respond to wildfires, including evacuating residents in harm's way. I urge you to immediately and expeditiously remove misinformation and disinformation about wildfires that is thwarting the efforts of public safety officials.

Climate change has made California and other areas across the Western U.S. a tinderbox as increased temperatures have produced more dry fuel that leads to longer and more destructive wildfire seasons. California experienced five of its twenty largest fires on record this year, and another five occurred within the last decade./1 Although many of the current fires were ignited by an unusual lightning siege, the immediate cause of most wildfires is human activity. Some are caused by arson, but generally most are unintentional./2

Last week, the press reported a proliferation of social media posts falsely alleging that Antifa started recent wildfires that are devastating much of the western part of our country./3 These posts have caused a deluge of 9-1-1 calls, leading to several local law enforcement agencies and the FBI to publicly plea for people to stop spreading misinformation and to stop calling 9-1-1 with rumors./4 The disinformation is also causing potentially violent encounters. Three journalists reporting on the wildfires in Oregon claimed they "got 3 guns pulled on us at a militia style checkpoint"/5 by "people who legitimately think 'antifa liberals' are setting these towns on fire."/6

The incident is even more problematic because Russia is a key spreader of the lie that Antifa is linked to wildfires. On September 9, 2020, RT published an article with the headline, "'Antifa are thrilled to hear this': Portland police ask protesters not to start blazes amid statewide wildfire emergency."/7 The U.S. Intelligence Community identified RT (formerly known as Russia Today), as "[t]he Kremlin's principal international propaganda outlet," finding that RT meddled in our 2016 elections consistently in favor of then-candidate Donald Trump./8

This isn't the first time disinformation about the cause of wildfire has spread on social media. In January of this year, a coordinated disinformation campaign sought to undermine the link between wildfires in Australia and climate change./9 I understand that content moderation at scale is difficult. However, I cannot understand why YouTube is still leaving up videos/10 containing wildfire disinformation after federal/11 and local law enforcement,/12 journalists,/13 fact-checkers,/14 and misinformation experts/15 have all debunked these allegations. One of the more popular videos titled "Is Antifa Starting The Wildfires?" has over 160,000 views, 13,000 likes, and nearly 4,000 comments as of my writing. I urge you to immediately and expeditiously remove videos on your platform that are overwhelming law enforcement efforts to combat wildfires. To do otherwise is dangerous.

Sincerely

Anna G. Eshoo

Member of Congress

See footnotes here: https://eshoo.house.gov/sites/eshoo.house.gov/files/Rep.%20Eshoo%20ltr%20to%20YouTube%20re%20wildfire%20disinfo%20-%209.15.20.pdf

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September 15, 2020

To: Mr. Mark Zuckerberg, CEO and Co-Founder, Facebook, Inc., 1 Hacker Way, Menlo Park, California 94025

Dear Mr. Zuckerberg,

The Western United States is experiencing a historic wildfire season. As I write to you, over 100 large wildfires are burning across eight states, and more than 3 million acres have burned this year in California alone. At a time when states are working nonstop to contain these fires, I'm extremely troubled by reports that disinformation about the wildfires on your platform thwarted the efforts of first responders to respond to wildfires, including evacuating residents in harm's way. I'm pleased that Facebook decided to remove wildfire disinformation, but I'm disappointed at how slowly this decision was reached. Facebook must be prepared to remove harmful information more quickly.

Climate change has made California and other areas across the Western U.S. a tinderbox as increased temperatures have produced more dry fuel that leads to longer and more destructive wildfire seasons. California experienced five of its twenty largest fires on record this year, and another five occurred within the last decade./1 Although many of the current fires were ignited by an unusual lightning siege, the immediate cause of most wildfires is human activity. Some are caused by arson, but generally most are unintentional./2

Last week, the press reported a proliferation of social media posts falsely alleging that Antifa started recent wildfires that are devastating much of the western part of our country./3 These posts have caused a deluge of 9-1-1 calls, leading to several local law enforcement agencies and the FBI to publicly plea for people to stop spreading misinformation and to stop calling 9-1-1 with rumors./4

The disinformation is also causing potentially violent encounters. Three journalists reporting on the wildfires in Oregon claimed they "got 3 guns pulled on us at a militia style checkpoint"/5 by "people who legitimately think 'antifa liberals' are setting these towns on fire."/6

The incident is even more problematic because Russia is a key spreader of the lie that Antifa is linked to wildfires. On September 9, 2020, RT published an article with the headline, "'Antifa are thrilled to hear this': Portland police ask protesters not to start blazes amid statewide wildfire emergency."/7 The U.S. Intelligence Community identified RT (formerly known as Russia Today), as "[t]he Kremlin's principal international propaganda outlet," finding that RT meddled in our 2016 elections consistently in favor of then-candidate Donald Trump./8

This isn't the first time disinformation about the cause of wildfire has spread on social media. In January of this year, a coordinated disinformation campaign sought to undermine the link between wildfires in Australia and climate change./9 Ultimately, federal/10 and local law enforcement,/11 journalists,/12 fact-checkers,/13 and misinformation experts/14 all debunked the disinformation linking Antifa to wildfires.

I appreciate that Facebook decided to remove wildfire-related disinformation on Saturday./15 However, at least one disinformation post had "spread to hundreds of thousands of [Facebook's] users" by Thursday evening./16 I urge you to revamp your procedure to more expeditiously remove misinformation and disinformation that directly or indirectly threatens public safety. It took Facebook days to remove posts containing wildfire disinformation. This just isn't good enough. Facebook's algorithm allows for disinformation to become viral in minutes. You either need to add a 'circuit breaker' to throttle posts from reaching virality before a human can review a post that may lead to harm, or you need to be able to more quickly reach decisions to remove disinformation.

Sincerely

Anna G. Eshoo

Member of Congress

See footnotes here: https://eshoo.house.gov/sites/eshoo.house.gov/files/Rep.%20Eshoo%20ltr%20to%20FB%20re%20wildfire%20disinfo%20-%209.15.20.pdf