Senators to social media: Act now or we will
Internet giants grilled on Russian manipulation
WASHINGTON – Angry senators warned attorneys for Facebook, Twitter and Google on Wednesday that they must do more to prevent Russian manipulation of their social media platforms or Congress will be forced to impose new rules to help readers identify malicious content.
“I must say, I don’t think you get it,” Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., told the attorneys at a hearing before the Senate Intelligence Committee focused on Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election. “What we’re talking about is a cataclysmic change. What we’re talking about is the beginning of cyberwarfare . ... You have a huge problem on your hands.
“You created these platforms, and now they are being misused. “You have to be the ones to do something about it, or we will.”
The Republican-led Congress has generally been reluctant to pass new regulations governing the private sector. But congressional hearings with the social media companies on Tuesday and Wednesday showed that the hands-off approach may be changing amid growing frustration by lawmakers with the companies’ response to Russian efforts to sow division and discontent among U.S. voters.
Also Wednesday, Democrats on the House Intelligence Committee publicly released a sampling of ads and other content that Facebook, Instagram and Twitter have linked to Russian actors and turned over to the committee. The ads released Wednesday focus on such issues as the Black Lives Matter movement, illegal immigration, Islam, LGBT issues, Christianity, state pride, and Democratic presidential candidates
Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders — hot-button topics apparently intended to instigate conflict.
The full House Intelligence Committee is still working with Facebook to release more than 3,000 ads purchased by the Kremlin-linked Internet Research Agency. The information must first be scrubbed of any personally identifiable data, Democrats said. The panel’s Democrats also released Twitter accounts identified by the company as connected to the Russian agency, which impersonates U.S. news organizations, political parties, and various interest groups.
Rep. Adam Schiff of California, the senior Democrat on the House committee, said it’s clear the Russians used social media to help the Trump campaign.
“Whether the Russians and Trump coordinated these efforts we do not yet know, but it is true that the Russians mounted what could be described as an independent expenditure campaign on Trump’s behalf,” he said. “Russian ads on Twitter, for example, promoted stories about Hillary Clinton’s allegedly poor health or legal problems.”
President Trump has denied any collusion between his campaign and the Russians.
At Wednesday’s Senate Intelligence Committee hearing, chairman Richard Burr displayed posters of ads by two fake Texas groups that were posted on Facebook last year. One group pretended to be an anti-immigrant group, and the second pretended to be a proMuslim group. Those ads, which were later found to be paid for by the Russians, spurred real protests from Americans who clashed in Houston.
“You must do better to protect the American people, and frankly all of your users,” said Burr, R-N.C.
Members of Congress have introduced the bipartisan Honest Ads Act in the House and Senate that would require social media companies to disclose who is paying for political ads on their sites the way traditional media companies already must do. Companies also would be required to take “reasonable efforts” to ensure foreign nationals are not purchasing political advertising. Federal law prohibits foreigners from contributing to U.S. campaigns or buying election-related ads.
Social media companies have generally resisted such efforts, pledging to do a better job on their own of weeding out disinformation and foreign “bad actors” on their platforms.
Sean Edgett, Twitter’s acting general counsel, said Wednesday that Twitter is “very supportive of the direction” that the Honest Ads Act is going, although he added that the bill needs “fine-tuning.” He also said Twitter is already acting voluntarily to do much of what the bill would mandate.
Kent Walker, Google’s senior vice president and general counsel, said the company is committed to working with Congress to stop manipulation of its sites by foreign governments. The attorneys for the three companies all promised to continue working closely with the intelligence committees.