Ian Vandewalker and Lawrence Norden from the Brennan Center for Justice at NYU School of Law explain why protecting democracy from a hostile foreign power means doing more than just letting social media companies regulate themselves:
The recent interest from Facebook, Twitter and other technology industry leaders in working with congressional investigators to understand what happened this past election is heartening. Good citizenship from tech leaders will be a major asset as the country builds needed defenses against foreign meddling in our elections.
But the best way to protect ourselves is to adopt common sense rules that apply to everyone. Protecting the integrity of the democratic process from foreign interference is one of the government's core responsibilities. Nobody else can do that job for it.
They recommend Congress require social media companies to make all political ads available to the public and fully disclose who is paying for those ads.
Read more: Facebook Can't Do Congress' Job (U.S. News & World Report)