ארה"ב: חברי קונגרס דורשים לחייב משפיענים להצהיר אם הם מקבלים כספים ממדינות זרות

Next, some of what you see on social media may actually be paid for by America's adversaries. A bipartisan group of lawmakers is working to require social media influencers to disclose when they're being paid by a foreign government. NDD's Washington correspondent Jack Bradley has the details. New bipartisan legislation would require social media influencers to disclose when they're being paid by a foreign government. It's being called the Foreign Propaganda Registration Act, introduced by Congresswoman Ana Paulina Luna, and it's meant to stop U.S. adversaries from pushing propaganda through American influencers, making foreign political messaging seem like homegrown concerns. Although we are unique in the sense that we have the, you know, First Amendment and free speech here, it's naive to think that other countries aren't going to use that against us, and they do. Her bill's backed by both Republicans and Democrats, including Congressman Jared Moskowitz, who's long been calling out foreign adversaries weaponizing social media. Our foreign adversaries cannot beat us militarily, but what they can do through social media platforms is they can sell Americans propaganda to get us fighting, to get us hating each other. And this issue is increasingly common. The Chinese Communist Party has for years been paying off Western media influencers to sway public opinion and slander anyone critical of the party. China-linked actors have attempted to pay otherwise unaffiliated social media influencers in the United States to broadcast pro-Beijing content on topics ranging from conditions in Xinjiang to, quote, saying good things about U.S.-China relations to claims that COVID-19 originated in the U.S. deer population. The State Department estimates that China spends billions of dollars annually on foreign manipulation efforts. One of the most high-profile cases of this includes the Chinese regime's efforts to silence religious dissident groups like Falun Gong, a peaceful spiritual practice heavily persecuted in China. And U.S. adversaries are weaponizing social media in another way. The U.S. Navy just sent out a warning to service members to remove any content on social media linking them with the Navy. Officials say America's adversaries are actively mining such data on social media to threaten them and their families, including doxing, harassment, and surveillance, showing that social media is increasingly being utilized as a new battleground by U.S. adversaries. Jack Bradley, NTD News, Washington.