House Lawmakers Plan to Release Facebook Ads Bought by Russians
12 Octobre 2017 - 4:51AM
Dow Jones News
By Natalie Andrews and Christopher S. Stewart
WASHINGTON -- House lawmakers leading an investigation into
Russian interference in the 2016 presidential race plan to release
Facebook Inc. ads bought by Russian groups, they said
Wednesday.
"My personal advice is that we'll do it as quick as we can,"
said Rep. Mike Conaway, the Texas Republican leading the
investigation on the House Intelligence Committee.
Rep. Adam Schiff of California, the top Democrat on the
committee, said: "We've asked for Facebook's help to scrub any
personal, identifiable information" from the ads. "After we do
that, we'll release them publicly."
Messrs. Conaway and Schiff met with Facebook Chief Operating
Officer Sheryl Sandberg on Wednesday.
Late Wednesday Ms. Sandberg posted on her Facebook page about
the meeting, saying she discussed the ads Facebook provided to
Congress and that Facebook executives "reiterated that Congress is
best placed to decide if and when the ads should be made available
to the American people" and is committed to doing so in a "way that
protects peoples' privacy.
Facebook executives plan to meet with members of the
Congressional Black Caucus on Thursday to discuss how Russians were
allowed to publish ads pertaining to the Black Lives Matter
movement.
Lawmakers who have seen the Facebook ads describe them as being
intended to "sow chaos." A page called "Blacktivist" appeared to be
aligned with the Black Lives Matter movement, according to a source
familiar with the pages. Another ad, labeled "Secured Borders,"
railed against illegal immigration.
Under fire for its response to Russian activity on its site
before the presidential vote, last week Facebook presented
congressional investigators with data on 3,000 ads bought by
Russian actors before and after the presidential election.
U.S. intelligence officials have concluded that a campaign
authorized by the highest levels of the Russian government hacked
into state election-board systems and the email networks of
political organizations to damage the candidacy of Democratic
presidential nominee Hillary Clinton.
Russia has denied interfering in the election.
The Senate Intelligence Committee is scheduled to hear from
representatives of Facebook, Alphabet Inc.'s Google and Twitter
Inc. on Nov. 1 in a public session that will look at how Russian
groups used the platforms during the election. The House panel is
planning a similar hearing the same day, and Mr. Conaway said the
ads probably wouldn't be released before then.
The move to publicly release the Facebook ads is a shift from
earlier efforts by lawmakers to placate social-media companies'
desire to keep the matter private.
Earlier this year, the office of Sen. Lindsey Graham (R., S.C.)
invited Google, Twitter and Facebook, along with terrorism analyst
Michael S. Smith II, to attend a July congressional hearing,
organized by the Senate Judiciary Committee's subcommittee on crime
and terrorism.
The companies balked, Mr. Smith said in an interview, fearing
the optics of an open session.
Sen. Graham's office told Mr. Smith that social media companies
were "averse" to a public setting, fearing they would have to
"acknowledge certain persistent problems" on their platforms, Mr.
Smith said. He said he believed the companies were afraid that
painting a "rosy picture would ultimately put them in a position of
being accused of lying to Congress."
Under pressure from the companies, lawmakers twice scaled back
the session -- first to a closed hearing and finally to a closed
informal briefing, which was held in September, Mr. Smith said. It
was attended by Sens. Dianne Feinstein (D., Calif.), Sheldon
Whitehouse (D., R.I.) and Mr. Graham, as well as Senate Judiciary
Committee staff.
The Senate Judiciary Committee staff didn't immediately respond
to a request for comment.
While the briefing formally focused on terror recruitment
online, it also touched on Russian influence in social media,
according to Mr. Smith. Generally, he said the companies
acknowledged the influence problem and said they were concerned.
Mr. Smith said the senators said they were looking forward to
learning more about the issues.
Write to Natalie Andrews at Natalie.Andrews@wsj.com and
Christopher S. Stewart at christopher.stewart@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
October 11, 2017 22:36 ET (02:36 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2017 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
Twitter (NYSE:TWTR)
Graphique Historique de l'Action
De Juin 2024 à Juil 2024
Twitter (NYSE:TWTR)
Graphique Historique de l'Action
De Juil 2023 à Juil 2024