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Friday, November 22nd, 2024

Ernst-backed bill to combat terrorist use of social media passes committee

The Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee passed the “Combat Terrorist Use of Social Media Act of 2016” on Wednesday, which was co-sponsored by U.S. Senator Joni Ernst (R-IA).

“I want to thank both Chairman Johnson and Senator Booker for working with me on this bill,” Ernst said. “This will require the Obama administration to fulfill a promise that they made back in 2011 to develop a comprehensive strategy to counter and prevent violent extremism and online radicalization. So while President Obama continues to lack a comprehensive overall strategy to defeat ISIS, this legislation will ensure he must at least present a strategy to address its use of social media to spread terror.”

The act requires the president to prepare a report on the use of social media by terrorists organizations and an evaluation of the current government efforts to combat such use, as well as a comprehensive strategy to counter terrorists’ use of social media.

The bipartisan legislation is a companion to H.R. 3654, introduced by Rep. Ted Poe (R-TX), House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Ed Royce (R-CA) and Ranking Member Eliot Engel (D-NY), and passed by the House in December.