Senate Panel Likely to Ask Facebook to Publicly Detail Russian Activity on Platform During Election
2017年9月13日 - 8:01AM
Dow Jones News
By Byron Tau and Deepa Seetharaman
WASHINGTON -- The bipartisan leadership of the Senate
Intelligence Committee said Tuesday they are likely to call
representatives from Facebook Inc. to Capitol Hill to publicly
detail Russian activity on the company's platform during the 2016
election.
In separate interviews with reporters, Sens. Richard Burr (R.,
N.C.) and Mark Warner (D., Va.) said they are in discussions with
each other and other committee chairs in Congress about holding a
public hearing with representatives from Facebook and other
social-media companies on foreign election-related activity in
cyberspace.
Mr. Burr, chairman of the panel conducting a probe into Russian
activity during last year's election, said he was leaning toward
hold such a hearing, but that he was working out issues like scope,
jurisdiction and whether to include other social-media companies,
such as Twitter Inc., in the final lineup of witnesses.
"Now that we've opened up this avenue of social media, it's of
great interest for us to get a full accounting from everyone who
operates in the space if in fact foreign money found its way in to
finance any of the efforts on social media," said Mr. Burr. He
added that no final decision had been made and that he was in
negotiations with Mr. Warner and other committee leaders.
Facebook declined to comment, pointing to a blog post last week
in which the company said: "We have shared our findings with U.S.
authorities investigating these issues, and we will continue to
work with them as necessary."
Facebook said last week that it had identified about 500
"inauthentic" accounts responsible for $100,000 in advertising
spending that it believes have ties to Russia. The findings mark
the first time Facebook has acknowledged that Russian actors may
have used its platform during the presidential campaign and raised
questions on Capitol Hill about the use of social-media platforms
by Moscow to inflame U.S. public opinion and interfere in domestic
politics.
Mr. Warner, the top Democrat on the Senate Intelligence
Committee, described social media as the "wild, wild West,"
suggesting that it could become an issue that Congress may deal
with by extending campaign-finance laws to explicitly cover social
media.
Mr. Warner also said the committee's investigation into the use
of social-media platforms was just beginning and that he had
additional questions for Twitter.
Twitter wasn't immediately available for comment. The company is
also expected to speak to congressional investigators in the coming
weeks about Russian activity on its platform.
"I question whether Facebook has put near the amount of
resources they need into getting us all the facts," said Mr.
Warner, adding that the committee would have "more to say on that
coming" concerning the issue of a public hearing.
The social-media giant said that most of the ads it identified
didn't typically reference a particular political candidate.
Rather, the company review found the ads focused on "amplifying
divisive social and political messages across the ideological
spectrum -- touching on topics from LGBT matters to race issues to
immigration to gun rights."
According to a January report from the U.S. intelligence
community, the highest levels of the Russian government were
involved in directing the electoral interference to boost Donald
Trump at the expense of his Democratic rival Hillary Clinton.
Russia's tactics included efforts to hack state election
systems; infiltrating and leaking information from party committees
and political strategists; and disseminating through social media
and other outlets negative stories about Mrs. Clinton and positive
ones about the Mr. Trump, the report said.
Russia denies any interference, while Mr. Trump has called the
investigations into election interference a "witch hunt."
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
September 12, 2017 18:46 ET (22:46 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2017 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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