Top social media companies revealed more details about how Russian operatives made extensive use of their platforms to wage a disinformation and influence campaign targeting the 2016 presidential election as senators on Tuesday called the threat a critical national security issue and questioned the ability of tech companies to combat it.
In the first of three hearings before Congress this week, senators grilled lawyers from Twitter, Facebook and Google about the ways Russian-linked accounts sought to sow discord and exploit societal divisions in the United States online. These Russian-associated operatives used “fake news” posts, social media manipulation and amplification through bots, and targeted advertising.
“This is the national security challenge of the 21st century,” Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC), the chair of the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime and Terrorism, said during the hearing on extremist content and Russian disinformation online.
The tech representatives told senators that Russian operatives spread posts that reached about 126 million Facebook users, posted more than 131,000 tweets, and uploaded at least 1,100 YouTube videos.
A U.S. intelligence community assessment found that Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered a cyber-enabled influence campaign aimed at interfering in the U.S. election and boosting then-candidate Donald Trump’s presidential chances. The lawyers from Twitter, Facebook and Google said they each agreed with the intelligence agencies’ conclusions about Russian interference.
Democratic Sen. Patrick Leahy of Vermont knocked the social media platforms as "Johnny-come-latelies,” telling the three lawyers, “there's a lot I think you could have done earlier."
Facebook General Counsel Colin Stretch told members that about 126 million users may have been exposed to content uploaded by Kremlin-linked accounts. The Internet Research Agency — a Kremlin-linked network of paid trolls — spent about $100,000 on more than 3,000 Facebook and Instagram ads between June 2015 and August 2017, according to Facebook, and its associated accounts posted more than 80,000 pieces of content during that period of time.
Sean Edgett, Twitter’s acting general counsel, revealed that it has so far identified 2,752 accounts connected to the Internet Research Agency that posted at least 131,000 tweets between September 2016 and November 2016. Twitter also said it found more than 36,000 automated accounts that posted 1.4 million election-related tweets during that period, garnering 288 million views.
Last week, Twitter announced it would ban Russian state-owned media organizations RT and Sputnik from purchasing ads. Edgett told members Twitter’s aim is to demonstrate “our commitment to working with you, our industry partners, and other stakeholders to ensure that the experience of 2016 never happens again.”
Richard Salgado, Google’s director of law enforcement and information security, told Congress that 18 channels the company suspects of a Kremlin association posted more than 1,100 videos onto YouTube that contained political content.
The three representatives told members their respective platforms are all investing significantly in efforts to address the threat from foreign actors, protect users, and block and remove malicious activity. Senators, however, pressed the tech companies on their respective capabilities and teams available to combat disinformation, propaganda and extremist content.
During the hearing, Democratic Sen. Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut asked Facebook’s representative to describe how the Russian troll farm and other related actors received their targeting information for advertising and if a political campaign could have provided that. When Stretch said he did not know, Blumenthal asked Facebook to follow up on the issue.
Republican Sen. John Kennedy of Louisiana asked how companies like Facebook could have oversight over the entirety of its advertisers, alluding to concerns over the use of shell corporations to purchase advertising.
“I’m trying to get us down from la la land here,” Kennedy said. “The truth of the matter is you have five million advertisers that change every month, every minute, probably every second. You don’t have the ability to know who every one of those advertisers is, do you?”
Facebook’s Stretch said that “of course” the answer was no — “we can’t see behind the activity.”
Sen. Chris Coons (D-DE) showed an example of a Facebook ad that appeared during the 2016 campaign that he said “was paid for in rubles by Russians” by a group that called itself “Heart of Texas.”
Stretch responded, “that advertisement has no place on Facebook” and said “we are committed to preventing that sort of behavior from occurring again on our platform.”
Sen. Al Franken (D-MN) also pressed Facebook about how it did not recognize the purchase of political advertisements with rubles was suspicious.
“How did Facebook — which prides itself on being able to process billions of data points and instantly transform them into personal connections for its users — somehow not make the connection that electoral ads paid for in rubles were coming from Russia?” the Minnesota Democrat asked. “How could you not connect those two dots?”
Stretch replied that, in hindsight, “signals were missed.”
Mackenzie Weinger is a national security reporter at The Cipher Brief. Follow her on Twitter @mweinger.
