WASHINGTON: US President Joe Biden said he would ask Congress to do more to hold social media companies accountable for spreading hate and asked Americans to speak out against racism and extremism during a summit at the White House.
"White supremacists will not have the last word," Biden told the 'United We Stand' summit of bipartisan local leaders, experts and survivors. Biden said the US had long experienced a "through line of hate" against minority groups, one that had been given "too much oxygen" by politics and the media in recent years.
"It's so important that we keep hollering. It's so important for people to know that's not who we are." The event also recognised communities that suffered hate-based attacks, including mass shootings at an LGBT+ nightclub in Orlando in 2016 and at a supermarket in Buffalo, New York, earlier this year, in which ten people were shot dead.
Hate crimes in the US hit a 12-year high in 2020 in the latest available data, the FBI said last year. Biden was introduced by Susan Bro, mother of Heather Heyer, who was killed during a white nationalist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, in 2017.
"Her murder resonated around the world, but the hate did not begin or end there," Ms Bro said. Participants gave Biden a standing ovation when he said he would call on Congress to "get rid of special immunity for social media companies and impose much stronger transparency requirements on all of them".
The White House event comes just weeks after Mr Biden warned in a speech in Philadelphia that extremist Republicans are a threat to democracy. Biden addressed criticism that the speech was divisive saying, "we can't remain silent".
Biden appealed for a united front against hate crimes and political violence in a speech building on his bid to present himself as champion of moderate values at a time of rising extremism.
