Facebook told to reveal evidence of Russian meddling in UK politics

FACEBOOK has been told to hand over evidence of any Russian meddling in British politics to MPS.

The digital, culture, media and sport committee has demanded that the US internet giant release adverts and pages linked to Russia during the build-up to last year’s EU referendum and June’s general election.

Facebook has admitted that fake accounts tied to the Kremlin had bought more than $100,000 (£760,000) worth of politically charged adverts in an apparent attempt to influence voters in last year’s US election.

Yesterday, Damian Collins, chairman of the committee, wrote to Facebook chief executive Mark Zuckerberg asking for the company to hand over any examples of adverts bought by Russian-linked accounts as well as details of how much they cost and how many people saw them.

The committee is investigating the influence of “fake news”, which critics say has thrived on Facebook in the past year amid politically divisive votes in the US and across Europe. “Part of this inquiry will focus on the role of foreign actors abusing platforms such as yours to interfere in the political discourse of other nations,” Mr Collins wrote.

Facebook sparked a political storm in the US last month when it revealed that thousands of adverts were bought by Russians in the run-up to Donald Trump’s election victory. Under investigation from Congress, it has handed over 3,000 adverts purchased over two years by the Internet Research Agency, a group linked to the Russian government. Mr Collins said he was looking for similar evidence in the UK.

The US adverts, which also appeared on Instagram and were seen by 10million people, focused on divisive topics such as race, immigration and gun rights, and were allegedly used to help propel Mr Trump to the White House. Mr Trump has attempted to play down the impact of the adverts, saying that the amounts spent were “tiny” and Facebook was on Hillary Clinton’s side.

Mr Zuckerberg has said it “just wouldn’t be realistic” to stop all interference in election campaigns on Facebook, although the company has since vowed to manually review adverts targeting people by political affiliation or race. “We have received a letter from the digital, culture, media and sport committee and will respond once we have had the opportunity to review the request,” a Facebook spokesman said.

The committee may summon representatives of technology firms to give evidence before the end of the year, and it plans to visit the US next year to question social media executives.

Twitter has also been under fire after thousands of automated “bot” accounts were created to attack Mrs Clinton and her Democrat supporters during the election. Bots were also allegedly used during the Brexit referendum to try to influence the vote, tweeting multiple times a day before deleting their own messages to cover their tracks. One in eight political tweets was written by a “bot” during the general election.