Facebook should testify, says U.S. Senator

WASHINGTON — The chairman of the Senate intelligence committee says Facebook should testify as part of its probe into Russian meddling in the U.S. election, and that the social media giant “seems to have been less than forthcoming” with Congress.

Sen. Richard Burr, R-N.C., said Tuesday that committee members agreed the panel should hold a public hearing after it was revealed earlier this month that hundreds of phoney Facebook accounts, likely run from Russia, spent about $100,000 on ads aimed at stirring up divisive issues such as gun control and race relations during the 2016 campaign. The panel is one of several in Congress probing Russian interference and any connections to President Donald Trump’s campaign.

“Facebook seems to have been less than forthcoming on potentially how they were used,” Burr said, adding that it’s “just a question of when, and potentially the scope of what that hearing would be.”

Facebook has briefed members of Congress and also provided the ads and other information to Robert Mueller, the special counsel in charge of the Russia investigation, the company said. In all, the accounts purchased some 3,000 ads between June 2015 and May 2017. While the ads didn’t specifically reference the election, a candidate or voting, they nevertheless allowed “divisive messages” to be amplified via the social media platform, the company’s chief security officer, Alex Stamos, said. In addition to the 470 accounts that appeared to be run from Russia, Stamos said its investigators also discovered an additional 2,200 ads that “might have originated in Russia.”