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Letter: Require social media giants to act on Russian meddling

(Jacquelyn Martin | The Associated Press) Google's Senior Vice President and General Counsel Kent Walker, right, speaks during a Senate Intelligence Committee hearing on Russian election activity and technology, Wednesday, Nov. 1, 2017, on Capitol Hill in Washington. At left is Twitter's Acting General Counsel Sean Edgett.

I have a suggestion for members of Congress who are frustrated by the reluctance of Facebook, Twitter and YouTube to take action to prevent a repeat of the thousands of fake posts, tweets and videos linked to Russia, which were viewed by millions of Americans and forwarded hundreds of millions of times.

Simply require the social media giants to send a private message like the following to everyone who forwarded information created by Russians: “This is to inform you that the following post/tweet/video that you forwarded to others was created by individuals linked to the Russian government, for the purpose of influencing the outcomes of the 2016 elections.”

This approach could help Americans fully appreciate the pervasiveness of Russia’s influence on our social media, and it just might shame the social media giants into taking action to discourage future meddling in American elections.

Blair Bateman, Salt Lake City