Social media firms vow to tackle fake news

WASHINGTON (AFP) — American internet giants told Congress Tuesday they were committed to cracking down on fake news operations on their platforms like the ones Russians conducted to meddle in last year’s U.S. presidential elections.

A day after bombshell indictments in a U.S. probe of Moscow’s election interference and possible coordination between President Donald Trump’s campaign and Russia, Facebook,Google and Twitter sought to assure concerned lawmakers that they were taking necessary steps to rid their platforms of disinformation, propaganda and provocation.

In their testimony, the social media companies revealed startling new data showing many more millions of Americans were exposed to the fake news than previously thought.

The new information gives the broadest picture yet of the Russian effort to spread discord across U.S. society.

“We are deeply concerned about all of these threats,” Facebook general counsel Colin Stretch told the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime and Terrorism.

“That foreign actors, hiding behind fake accounts, abused our platform and other internet services to try to sow division and discord — and to try to undermine our election process — is an assault on democracy, and it violates all of our values.”

The closely-watched hearing comes as the first charges in a U.S. probe into Russian meddling reverberated through Washington.

One of three unsealed indictments brought by U.S. special prosecutor Robert Mueller revealed early contacts between Kremlin-linked figures and a former advisor of Trump’s campaign.

In Moscow, Russia n Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov insisted the U.S. accusations of election-meddling were being made “without one piece of evidence.”