Foster, Kean Demand Action on Foreign Bots Encouraging Political Violence

Washington, DC – Today, Representatives Bill Foster (D-IL) and Tom Kean, Jr. (R-NJ) announced that they sent a letter calling on social media platforms to combat foreign bot farms spreading disinformation and encouraging political violence. 

“The recent rise in political violence poses a serious threat to American democracy,” said Congressman Bill Foster. “The Justice Department has found that foreign adversaries are using online bot farms to spread disinformation that fuels this violence. At a time when the American public needs to come together, social media platforms must do more to protect Americans from divisive foreign influence.”

 “With the alarming rise of foreign bot accounts spreading disinformation and fueling political division in the United States, we must take decisive steps to address this threat and hold foreign governments accountable,” said Congressman Tom Kean, Jr. “It is critical that we understand how our nation’s largest social media companies are detecting, tracking, and mitigating these malicious bots. We cannot allow foreign actors to exploit our online platforms to sow distrust, incite violence, and undermine the foundations of American democracy.” 

This letter was cosigned by Reps. Debbie Dingell (D-MI), Dan Goldman (D-NY), Jim McGovern (D-MA), Jared Moskowitz (D-FL), Seth Moulton (D-MA), Mike Quigley (D-IL), Brad Sherman (D-CA), Tom Suozzi (D-NY), and Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-FL). A full copy of the letter can be found here and below.

Mr. Zuckerberg, Mr. Musk, Mr. Mohan, and Mr. Huffman:  

We write to you as Members of Congress who are concerned about foreign influence operations and escalating political violence in the United States. Efforts by foreign governments to foment unrest, spread disinformation, and interfere with elections pose an unacceptable threat to the normal operation of democracy. As leaders of some of the largest social media platforms operating in the United States, you fill a unique role in combatting these threats. 

These are not new concerns. The Department of Justice has committed significant resources to combat bot farms on social media. In July of 2024, the Department announced that it had disrupted a covert Russian government-operated social media bot farm, which had used elements of artificial intelligence to create fictitious social media profiles. These profiles then promoted messages in support of Russian government objectives. In October of last year, the FBI and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) released an alert on the efforts from foreign threat actors like Iran to spread misinformation in the weeks leading up to the 2024 elections.

Foreign influence operations go beyond specific objectives or election interference. In a press conference following the assassination of political commentator Charlie Kirk, Utah Governor Spencer Cox said: “There is a tremendous amount of disinformation…we have bots from Russia, China, all over the world that are trying to instill disinformation and encourage violence.” At a moment where the American public need to come together to address our shared challenges, foreign governments are actively working to drive Americans apart. We cannot allow these efforts to go unchecked. 

To that end, we ask for your responses to the following questions within 30 days, by November 10, 2025:

1. What is the prevalence of likely bot accounts on your platforms, in terms of percentage of overall accounts, percentage of content creation, and percentage of content interaction? How does your platform detect these likely bot accounts?
2. Of those accounts, what is the breakdown of accounts operated domestically and internationally?
3. How many of the identified bot accounts originating internationally create or interact with explicitly political content?
4. What tools do you use to identify the nature of bot accounts and their countries of origin?
5. What strategies do you currently have in place to prevent malicious attempts by foreign governments to sow discord in the American public?
6. What steps are you taking to ensure your content recommendation and advertising algorithms do not inadvertently amplify disinformation or content created by foreign influence operations?
7. Do you have internal metrics for measuring the effectiveness of your counter disinformation efforts, and if so, will you commit to sharing those metrics with Congress?
8. How does your company coordinate with the FBI, CISA, DOJ, and other relevant agencies when you detect foreign interference operations carried out by bot accounts? 

Thank you for your attention to this critical matter. We look forward to your prompt response.

###