Staff Reports
Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi showed up at a haunted scene and declared that because social media hasn’t stopped online hate, “Congress has to police Big Tech.” He made that argument after a thwarted attack at a large Hindu temple in the Chicago suburbs and amid reports of threats against other lawmakers. The outrage is real. So is the instinct to blame tech platforms. But handing more raw power to Capitol Hill deserves a healthy dose of skepticism.
Online hate is real, but the cure can’t be congressional censorship
The Aurora temple incident was chilling: a young man with body armor and a rifle supposedly who jammed and didn’t manage to carry out a mass shooting, a recovered manifesto tied to white‑supremacist ideas, and leaders calling for an FBI hate‑crime review. Rep. Krishnamoorthi’s anger is understandable. Social media does feed radicalization. Memes and message boards can help a disturbed person find a violent ideology. Those are facts worth confronting.
But “Congress policing Big Tech” raises big problems
Here’s where common sense gets tricky. Saying Congress must “police Big Tech” sounds decisive, but who polices the policers? Giving lawmakers broad authority to remove content or force algorithms to change opens the door to partisan takedowns and a very messy re‑writing of free speech rules. Congress is not immune to political pressure, and it has a way of turning emergency fixes into permanent power grabs — with users and religious minorities often stuck in the middle.
Practical fixes beat politicized control
If the goal is to stop violence and protect houses of worship, there are clear, focused options that don’t hand the keys to Capitol Hill. Let the FBI and Justice Department finish their hate‑crime review and, where warranted, bring charges. Push for transparency from platforms about how violent content spreads and fund better threat‑reporting tools for communities and local police. Strengthen physical security for vulnerable sites and make sure existing laws are enforced against the people who radicalize and act — not against platforms as a catchall scapegoat.
Rep. Krishnamoorthi has been involved in tech oversight before, so he can and should press for accountability. But lawmakers must resist the instinct to use terror and grief as cover for sweeping censorship. We can condemn online hate and protect congregations without turning the internet into an extension of Beltway politics. That would be the worst kind of “policing” of all.
