Colin Stretch, Facebook general counsel, said in remarks that Russia’s attempts were “an insidious attempt to drive people apart.”
Russia Ads Reached Tens of Millions
Twitter identified 2,700 accounts linked to the IRC in the last three months before the 2016 election. Apart from those, there were a total of 36,000 Russian-linked, automated accounts that tweeted 1.4 million times in the same time period. These tweets reached an astounding 288 million views.
The topics that Russia propaganda focused on ranged from gun rights, to gay and transgender rights, to race relations.
Heated Testimony
Senator Al Franken, never one to bore audiences, implored Facebook to reject electoral ad buys made with foreign currency. “How did Facebook…somehow not make the connection that electoral ads, paid for in rubles, were coming from Russia?” he said.
Yet, the executives balked at this idea. “It’s relatively easy for bad actors to switch currencies,” Said Mr. Sretch.
“My goal is for you to think through this stuff a little bit better,” Senator Franken said.
Solving the Problem
Twitter is doubling its staff that flags and removes objectionable content; at 10,000 strong now to a hopeful 20,000. Twitter has also banned Russia Today (RT) from the platform.
