October 31, 2026 - Washington, D.C. – On Friday, U.S. Senators Adam Schiff and Alex Padilla (both-D-Calif.), members of the Senate Judiciary Committee, released the following statements following recent oversight of big tech social media companies’ efforts to combat election disinformation and misinformation. 

“Social media companies hold enormous power over the content voters see. Americans’ right to vote shouldn’t be undermined by deceptive election information online like false dates, locations, times, and methods for voting. And it is platforms’ responsibility to address inaccurate content where it exists. In recent days, my staff has met with representatives of these companies to hear about their efforts to tackle false content about our elections and to combat this danger to our democracy, and I appreciate the efforts some of the companies are taking to help prevent foreign election influence operations. However, it appears that not every company is taking seriously the false information online about voting – which in some cases continues to be disseminated by the Trump Administration with the intention to interfere with our election system. I will continue pressing for commitments where they should do more, including by acting on their existing policies to remove false content about voting,” said Senator Schiff.  

“The Trump Administration has gutted efforts to protect voters from election interference, but social media companies still have a responsibility to combat election mis- and disinformation. So far, their responses are incomplete and raise serious questions about who’s protecting American elections from malign influence operations. Social media companies must take concrete steps to identify and address false claims about voting, shut down foreign influence operations, and enforce their policies consistently. With the midterms underway, I’ll keep pressing for answers and meaningful action to protect voters and our democracy,” said Senator Padilla.

Background: On October 1, 2026, Senators Schiff and Padilla pressed the top executives of the largest social media companies about their plans to combat misinformation and disinformation on their platforms ahead of the 2026 midterm elections. The Senators requested answers on the companies’ policies to identify and respond to election mis and disinformation, what actions they will be taking for the 2026 midterm elections, the steps to ensure that the Supreme Court’s mail-in ballot ruling is not subject to mis- and disinformation campaigns that undermine the integrity of mail-in voting, and whether they’ve received requests from the Trump admin relating to election security.  

Following their inquiry over the past month, staff from the Senators’ offices met with companies to obtain more information about their plans, and what more must be done ahead of the upcoming election. 

Source: Senator Adam Schiff