Social Media Plays Key Role for Domestic Extremism, FBI Director Says
FBI Director Christopher Wray testified Wednesday in an annual worldwide-threats hearing held by the Senate Intelligence Committee. PHOTO: GRAEME JENNINGS/PRESS POOL
WASHINGTON—Social-media companies play a central role in disseminating the messaging of domestic violent extremists in the U.S., FBI Director Christopher Wray said Wednesday, likening the role platforms play in the spread of extremist thought to foreign-backed online political disinformation.
“Social media has become, in many ways, the key amplifier to domestic violent extremism just as it has for malign foreign influence,” Mr. Wray said in an annual worldwide-threats hearing held by the Senate Intelligence Committee. “The same things that attract people to it for good reasons are also capable of causing all kinds of harms that we are entrusted with trying to protect the American people against.”
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