Sen. Chris Coons, a Delaware Democrat, said Sunday that amid efforts to foster bipartisan discourse, the internet “is driving extremism in our country,” saying slain conservative activist Charlie Kirk “should not have paid with his life for the opportunity to speak out.”
“No matter how much I might deeply disagree with his political views, the idea that he would be killed in such a grotesque and public way has to bring all of us to reflect about how hard it’s getting, because the internet is an accelerant,” Coons said on “Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan.”
Kirk was shot and killed at Utah Valley University last week as in what officials described as a “targeted attack.” The assassination has spurred calls for lowering the political temperature nationwide, along with efforts to improve bipartisan dialogue in Washington.
Sen. James Lankford, an Oklahoma Republican, appeared alongside Coons on Sunday as the two men made an appeal to bipartisanship amid the divisive political climate. Lankford echoed Coons’ concerns about the internet and extremism to CBS News’ chief Washington correspondent Major Garrett, saying calls for bipartisanship can be drowned out because “the algorithm pushes people to the most extreme.”
“Social media is always pushing who’s the angriest, who’s the loudest, who says the craziest thing — that’s what gets repeated over and over and over again,” Lankford said. “So anytime that there is cogent dialog or an issue on something where people may disagree, but they’re having a civil conversation on it, that gets pushed aside towards someone that’s just angry and focused.”
Coons said that amid the forces that lead to political division, leaders from both parties have an opportunity to join together “in urging folks to set aside any thought of political violence and to respect each other, even as we keep advancing our political differences through discourse.”
The two senators pointed to one effort in Congress designed to protect children from dangerous online content, known as the Kids Online Safety Act. Coons noted that the measure has broad bipartisan support, saying it should be passed “to help reduce some of the risks and harms to our families and our country from the internet.”
Lankford called the bill “a great piece of legislation to be able to protect our kids,” adding that “we are seeing people radicalize online.” And he pointed to a cell phone ban in Oklahoma schools that he said teachers have touted for creating a “dramatically different” environment.
“People are looking up, people are interacting, people are talking again,” Lankford said. “They’re not just staring at their phone. They’re not getting fed all this vitriol all day long. And so it changes the mood of everything just by looking at each other in the face and saying, ‘let’s see if we can work this out.'”
The comments come after Utah Gov. Spencer Cox called social media a “cancer on our society” in the aftermath of Kirk’s assassination last week. Cox encouraged people to “log off, turn off, touch grass, hug a family member, go out and do good in your community.”
Cox built on the sentiment Sunday, saying on NBC’s “Meet the Press” that social media has “played a direct role in every single assassination and assassination attempt that we have seen over the last five, six years.”
“There is no question in my mind that cancer probably isn’t a strong enough word,” Cox said.
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