Facebook to Testify in US Election Probe
Social media giants Facebook, Google, and Twitter have been invited to testify in front of a US Senate panel. The US Senate Intelligence Committee is currently investigating Russia’s involvement in last year’s US presidential elections.
The committee’s chairman, Senator Richard Burr, said that top executives, such as Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, would not be required to testify.
He said, “[I]t’s more important that we get the person who’s most capable of talking about the technical aspects that they need to do to identify foreign money that may come in and what procedures need to be put in law that make sure elections are not intruded by foreign entities.”
In August, Facebook representatives claimed that a Russian troll farm with links to Moscow, had bought $100 000 in political adverts leading up to the election.
The panel is also investigating possible collusion between Donald Trump, his associates, and the Kremlin during the 2016 election campaign and throughout his presidency.
Tensions between Zuckerberg and Trump are high at the moment as the two have exchanged harsh words via social media. Trump accused Facebook of always being “anti-Trump” in a tweet yesterday morning.
Mark Zuckerberg rejected Trump’s accusation, saying, “Both sides are upset about ideas and content they don’t like. That’s what running a platform for all ideas looks like.”
Facebook representatives have said that the company is willing to hand over all 3000 Russian-linked adverts to congressional investigators. They also said that Facebook is cracking down on efforts to use the leading social network to meddle with elections in future.
