Washington, DC — End Citizens United (ECU) today, along with 16 civic groups and experts, sent letters to Facebook President and CEO Mark Zuckerberg and Google Co-founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page, urging them to support the Honest Ads Act.
The letters call on the social media and internet giants to take the necessary steps to ensure that their platforms are “never again used as a vehicle for foreign interests to interfere with U.S. elections.”
According to the letters:
“It is incontrovertible that Russia intervened in the 2016 presidential election in an effort to sabotage the election and our democracy. It is also clear that Facebook [as well as Google and YouTube] unwittingly facilitated these sabotage efforts by serving as a platform for Russian cyber-attacks on the 2016 presidential race.”
The letters concluded:
“We urge you to endorse the Honest Ads Act pending in Congress. We also urge you to take all steps necessary within your organization to prevent citizens from being misled and manipulated by foreign intervention in future elections.
“We also urge you to work with members of Congress to ensure that the most effective new laws are enacted and the most effective technical practices are put in place to protect our elections and our democracy from future foreign interference and sabotage.”
The reform organizations and experts signing the letters include:
Campaign Legal Center
Carole Mundy, Ethica Media/Political Transparency Project
Center for Digital Democracy
Common Cause
CREW
Democracy 21
Every Voice
End Citizens United
Free Speech for People
Issue One
Norman Eisen, chief White House ethics lawyer for President Obama, 2009-2011
Norman Ornstein
People for the American Way
Revolving Door Project
Richard Painter, chief White House ethics lawyer for President Bush, 2005-2007
Sunlight Foundation
U.S. PIRG
Find the full letters to Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg here and to Google co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin and CEO Sundar Pichai here.