A bipartisan group of senators is reintroducing legislation that would require social media companies to report content on their platforms posted by drug cartels trying to recruit Americans to smuggle immigrants into the country in exchange for fast cash.
Sens. Kyrsten Sinema (I-AZ) and James Lankford (R-OK), who leads the Senate border management subcommittee, are sponsoring the Combating Cartels on Social Media Act, which would require companies such as Facebook, TikTok, and YouTube to report social media posts by transnational criminal organizations to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.
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The legislation would also require DHS to analyze cartels’ usage of social media and create a portal for tech companies to report posts that attempt to recruit U.S. citizens to DHS and state and local entities.
“Every day, cartels post on social media platforms and recruit teenagers in Arizona to act as drivers for their illegal operations,” Sinema said in a statement on Monday. “These teens — some as young as 14 — are lured by the promise of easy cash and wind up participating in illegal smuggling, endangering everyday Arizonans along the way. Our bipartisan legislation cracks down on this criminal activity, holds social media platforms accountable, and further secures our border.”
The problem appears to be affecting regions along the southern border. Late last year, Texas Department of Public Safety spokesman Christopher Olivarez told Fox News there had been an uptick in the cartels’ recruitment videos on social media.
“That is why we are experiencing an increase in human smuggling events along the border,” Olivarez said in October. “Many individuals from larger metropolitan areas such as Austin, Houston, Dallas, San Antonio, and even out of state are being recruited as drivers through social media platforms to smuggle illegal immigrants.”
Last year, Former Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich warned about a rise in recruitment attempts via social media. He said the posts, often targeting teenagers, offered up to $2,000 for each person picked up at the border and driven north to a specific location.
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The legislation was introduced for the first time last fall following a Senate Homeland Security hearing after social media platforms committed to sharing recruitment content with DHS. Now, lawmakers want to ensure social media giants are required to report the cartel recruitment instead of relying on them to do it voluntarily.
“The largest social media companies pick and choose which illegal activities they like and which they do not like, and clearly, they like people illegally crossing the US border. Social media companies need to be held accountable for being a partner with cartels and turning their heads to human trafficking at the cost of human lives. This has to stop,” Lankford said in a statement.
The legislation is also sponsored by Sens. Mark Kelly (D-AZ) and Bill Hagerty (R-TN).