WASHINGTON �� Social media companies should be fined if they don't weed out automated accounts, or bots, trying to influence U.S. public opinion, Sen. Amy Klobuchar said Sunday.
"I think that would be a great idea," Klobuchar, D-Minn., said on NBC's "Meet the Press" when asked whether the companies should be fined if they do not act after the government discovers the bots.
The comments come after the Feb. 16 indictment of Russians associated with the Internet Research Agency, a Russian organization the Justice Department said "had a strategic goal to sow discord in the U.S. political system" including during the 2016 presidential election. The organization conducted operations on YouTube, Facebook, Instagram and Twitter, according to the indictment.
Even though Klobuchar said fining the social media companies is desirable, she was skeptical it would happen. "You need a Congress to act, and there are too many people that are afraid of doing something about this because we know these sites are popular,"' she said.
Klobuchar, a member of the Senate Judiciary Committee and top Democrat on a subcommittee that deals with antitrust and consumer rights issues, has introduced legislation that would require social media companies to disclose who is paying for online ads.
"These are the most sophisticated companies in America," Klobuchar said. "They have brilliant people working there. I believe that they've got to put more resources -- maybe it means they make less profits off of ads and other things -- but they've got to put the resources into Facebook and Twitter to stop these bots from dominating the accounts."
Facebook spokesman Andrew Stone, asked to respond, referred to November congressional testimony by the company's general counsel detailing efforts to curb millions of bots and citing improvements. Twitter spokeswoman Emily Horne had no comment.
Washington is increasingly pressuring social media companies because of Russian attempts to meddle in the 2016 presidential election through posts on their sites.
