Sen. Chris Coons: The internet “is driving extremism in our country”
Senator Chris Coons, a Delaware Democrat, said on Sunday that in the middle of efforts to promote bipartite, Internet “discourse, stimulates extremism in our country” Charlie Kirk “should not have paid with his life for the opportunity to express themselves.”
“No matter how much I could disagree in disagreement with his political opinions, the idea that he would be killed in such a grotesque and public way must bring us all to think how difficult it becomes, because the internet is an accelerator”. Coons said on “Face The Nation with Margaret Brennan. “”
Kirk was Shot and killed at the University of Utah Valley Last week as in what officials described as a “targeted attack”. The assassination has stimulated calls to reduce political temperature nationally, as well as efforts to improve bipartite dialogue in Washington.
Senator James Lankford, a republican of Oklahoma, appeared on Sunday next to Coons while the two men appealed to bipartite in the divided political climate. Lankford has echoed the concerns of the Coons concerning the Internet and extremism to the chief correspondent of CBS News, Major Garrett, saying that bipartite calls can be drowned because “algorithm pushes people to the most extreme”.
“Social media always grow who is most angry, who is strongest, who says the craziest thing – This is what is repeated again and again, “said Lankford.” So, whenever there is a convincing dialogue or a problem on something where people can disagree, but they have a civil conversation on this subject, which is dismissed towards someone who is just angry and concentrated. “”
Coons said that in the midst of the forces leading to the political division, the leaders of the two parties have the opportunity to meet “to urge people to put aside any thought of political violence and to respect each other, even if we continue to advance our political differences through the speech”.
The two senators underlined an effort at the congress designed to protect children from dangerous online content, known as Kids Online Safety Act. Coons noted that the measure has large bipartite support, saying that it should be adopted “to help reduce some of the risks and damage to our families and our Internet country.”
Lankford described the bill “a large number of laws to be able to protect our children”, adding that “we see people radicalizing online”. And he highlighted a mobile phone ban in Oklahoma schools which, according to teachers, boasted to create a “dramatically different” environment.
“People improve, people interact, people speak again,” said Lankford. “They don’t just look at their phone. They don’t feed all this vitriol all day. And so it changes the mood just looking at each other and saying:” Let’s see if we can solve this problem. “”
The comments come after the Governor of Utah, Spencer Cox, described the social media as “cancer on our society” following the assassination of Kirk last week. Cox encouraged people to “disconnect, turn off, touch grass, kiss a family member, go out and do good in your community”.
Cox was built on the feeling Sunday, saying on “Meet the Press” of NBC that social media “played a direct role in each attempt at assassination and assassination that we saw during the five, six years”.
“There is no doubt in my mind that cancer is probably not a fairly strong word,” said Cox.
