Republicans on a U.S. Senate committee wrote to Meta Platforms, Google, TikTok, and X, formerly known as Twitter, on Friday to inquire about their content filtering practices in the Israel-Hamas conflict, according to the senators.
The corporations were requested, according to the Republican members of the U.S. Senate Commerce Committee, "to fully commit to preserving a documentary history of Hamas's atrocities."
On October 7, the Israel-attacking Palestinian islamist group Hamas killed 1,400 people, mostly civilians. Israel has since carried several airstrikes in Gaza. According to the Palestinian health ministry, at least 4,137 Palestinians, including hundreds of children, have died in Gaza.
Hamas has been in charge of the 2.3 million-person enclave of Gaza since 2006. It is 45 kilometers (25 miles) long. Since Israel established a siege on Gaza 16 years ago, it has been mostly cut off from the outside world.
The Republican legislators, lead by Senator Ted Cruz, stated that they believed it was crucial to maintain a complete documentary history of Hamas's misdeeds.
"Ordinarily policies limiting the distribution of disturbing content might make sense, but videos and images uploaded by soldiers, law enforcement, citizens, journalists, and those with real time access to acts of terrorism need to be preserved to aid in prosecuting war crimes, intelligence gathering, media reporting, and the historical record."
