Facebook Inc. told a Senate panel that it has detected “only what appears to be insignificant overlap” between targeting of ads and content promoted by a pro-Kremlin Russia group and by the presidential campaign of Donald Trump.
The social-media company said it “does not believe it is in a position to substantiate or disprove allegations of possible collusion” between Russia and the Trump campaign, as part of a written response to questions from the Senate Intelligence Committee released Thursday evening by the panel. Facebook didn’t go into further detail, saying it was willing to schedule a meeting with Senate staff to discuss the matter.
The remarks go beyond what the company told Congress during public hearings on Nov. 1 as part of probes into Russian election meddling. At that time, Facebook General Counsel Colin Stretch said, “We have not seen overlap in the targeting — that was relatively rudimentary — used in the advertising that was disclosed, and any other advertiser on the site, including the Trump campaign.”
In responding to the Senate panel, Facebook, Twitter Inc. and Alphabet Inc.’s Google defended their efforts to combat malicious content on their networks and touted new disclosure efforts for election-related content that should be up and running for the 2018 midterm elections.
The company answers aren’t likely to quell concerns from lawmakers that the companies may not have found all of the abuse of its networks by Russians or taken enough steps to prevent future actions.
Facebook said it has no evidence that the Russian Internet Research Agency, which disseminated fake news and ads, targeted its efforts based on U.S. voter registration data.
Their targeting was “relatively rudimentary, targeting broad locations and interests,” the company said. Any revenue that Facebook made from ads run by the IRA was “immaterial,” it added, noting that it was contributing hundreds of thousands of dollars to the Defending Digital Democracy Project. – READ MORE
[give_form id=”79809″] [divider][/divider]The viral social media hashtag #ReleaseTheMemo, which demands that Congress release a document outlining alleged abuses by the U.S. intelligence community, appears to be entirely homegrown and not influenced by Russian bots, as top Democrats have charged.
“A knowledgeable source says that Twitter’s internal analysis has thus far found that authentic American accounts, and not Russian imposters or automated bots, are driving #ReleaseTheMemo,” The Daily Beast reports.
“There are no preliminary indications that the Twitter activity either driving the hashtag or engaging with it is either predominantly Russian.”
The #ReleaseTheMemo hashtag has been trending since last week, and the groundswell became so powerful it caught the eyes of Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) and Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.). – READ MORE
[give_form id=”79809″] [divider][/divider]Hence the latest effort from Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) and Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA) to push Facebook and Twitter into investigating the #ReleaseTheMemo social media campaign. That campaign centered around a classified memo from House Intelligence Committee chairman Devin Nunes (R-CA), who apparently details serious flaws in the FISA warrant system that could have led to the targeting of the Trump campaign for politically partisan reasons. The campaign itself trended on social media over the past few days.
The letter from Feinstein and Schiff stated:
If these reports are accurate, we are witnessing an ongoing attack by the Russian government through Kremlin-linked social media actors directly acting to intervene and influence our democratic process. This should be disconcerting to all Americans, but especially your companies as, once again, it appears the vast majority of their efforts are concentrated on your platforms. This latest example of Russian interference is in keeping with Moscow’s concerted, covert, and continuing campaign to manipulate American public opinion and erode trust in our law enforcement and intelligence institutions.
The evidence that Russian bots somehow deeply affected the 2016 election is a cherished myth Democrats refuse to surrender — they believe that Hillary Clinton lost because social media somehow twisted the process. There’s little evidentiary support for that proposition, but Democrats don’t seem to care: it’s all an opportunity to bash the hell out of social media companies and cudgel them into downgrading opposing sources of information. – READ MORE
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