126m FB users got Russia posts
Facebook: Moscow-linked posts reached 126M users
Washington: Facebook estimates that Russian-backed “inflammatory” content reached as many as 126 million American users, roughly one-third of the nation’s population, during and after the 2016 presidential election. The US accused Russia of meddling in 2016 presidential election in which Donald Trump emerged victorious.
Washington, Oct. 31: Major tech companies plan to tell Congress that they have found additional evidence of Russian activity on their services surrounding the 2016 US election.
Facebook, for instance, says a Russian group posted more than 80,000 times on its service during and after the election, potentially reaching as many as 126 million users. The company plans to disclose these numbers to the Senate Judiciary Committee, according to a person familiar with the testimony. The person declined to be named because the committee has not officially released the testimony.
Twitter plans to tell the same committee that it has uncovered and shut down 2,752 accounts linked to the same group, Russia’s Internet Research Agency, which is known for promoting proRussian government positions.
That number is nearly 14 times larger than the number of accounts Twitter handed over to congressional committees three weeks ago, according to a person familiar with the matter.
Google announced in a blog post that it found evidence of “limited” misuse of its services by the Russian group, as well as some YouTube channels that were likely backed by Russian agents.
The companies are set to testify at three hearings on Tuesday and Wednesday as part of congressional probes of Russian interference.
Colin Stretch, Facebook’s general counsel, plans to tell the judiciary panel that 120 pages set up by the Russian agency posted repeatedly between January 2015 and August 2017. The company estimates that roughly 29 million people were directly “served” posts in their news feeds from the agency over that time. Those posts then spread widely on Facebook, although Mr Stretch’s prepared testimony makes clear that many of the 126 million people reached this way may not have seen the posts.
On Twitter, the Russialinked accounts put out 1.4 million election-related tweets from September through November 15 last year. Google said that two accounts linked to the Russian group spent $4,700 on ads its platforms during the 2016 election. —