Responding to an increase in online threats against law enforcement that have reportedly increased since the FBI's raid of former President Donald Trump's home Mar-a-Lago, House Oversight Committee leaders sent letters to eight social media companies Friday urging a crackdown.
Facebook parent company Meta, Twitter, TikTok, and Telegram were among the platforms contacted, as well as Rumble, Gettr and Gab, which are popular among conservatives. Trump's own social media platform, Truth Social, was also contacted.
The lawmakers requested information on the threats posted online since the Aug. 8 raid of Trump's Mar-a-Lago estate, along with information about how the companies are handling threats against law enforcement officers.
"Reckless statements" by the 45th president and GOP members of Congress may have "unleashed a flood of violent threats on social media that have already led to at least one death," Oversight Chairwoman Rep. Carolyn Maloney, D-N.Y., and National Security subcommittee Chairman Rep. Stephen Lynch, D-Mass., wrote in the letters.
NBC News reported that the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security issued a joint warning last week about the spike in threats against federal agents since they executed the search warrant at Mar-a-Lago.
According to CNBC, the two Democrats also referenced a man who fired a nail gun at an FBI field office in Cincinnati, Ohio, then fled before he was fatally shot in a shootout with police. The man had reportedly posted threatening messages on a Truth Social account in the aftermath of the Mar-a-Lago raid.
"We urge you to take immediate action to address any threats of violence against law enforcement that appear on your company's platforms," Maloney and Lynch wrote in the letters.
"The Committee strongly supports the First Amendment rights of all Americans to speak out about the actions of their government and law enforcement matters, including on social media platforms. However, threats and incitements of deadly violence are unacceptable and against the law," they wrote.
The committee leaders also said they are mulling "whether legislative reform is necessary to protect law enforcement personnel and increase coordination with federal authorities."
In a statement issued the night of Aug. 8, Trump fumed that his residence in Palm Beach, Florida, was "under siege, raided and occupied by a large group of FBI agents."
Several Republican members of Congress quickly put out statements that were critical of the FBI and law enforcement and supportive of Trump.
House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., accused the Department of Justice of being "weaponized" and Minority Whip Steve Scalise, R-La., suggested that the agents executing the warrant had gone "rogue."
One user on Truth Social reportedly wrote, "F*** the Feds! The Second Amendment is not about shooting deer! Lock and load!"
On Monday, Trump said the nation's "temperature has to be brought down" and offered to do "whatever I can to help the country" during "a dangerous time."
"There is tremendous anger, like I've never seen before, over all of the scams, and this new one — years of scams and witch hunts, and now this," Trump told Fox News Digital. "If there is anything we can do to help, I, and my people, would certainly be willing to do that."
Maloney and Lynch requested that the companies submit the information by Sept. 2.
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