After months of congressional investigations into Russian interference with U.S. elections, legislation is gaining traction in the Senate that would impose new disclosure requirements for political advertising on Facebook, Twitter, Google and other social media. Senator John McCain gave a big boost to a proposal by Democratic Senators Amy Klobuchar and Mark Warner to require disclosure of who’s paying for online political ads, announcing he’ll co-sponsor the bill. In two weeks, executives for the social media giants are due to testify at public hearings about Russia’s use of their networks to interfere in the 2016 election. “I’ve been fighting for free and open and full disclosure for the past 25 years. This is part of that effort,” McCain told reporters Wednesday.
… Several senators are also working on bills aimed at improving election security, including Democrat Martin Heinrich of New Mexico and Collins, both members of the Intelligence Committee.
Heinrich’s legislation is expected to propose funding and guidelines to protect voting systems and databases from cyberattacks. Republican Senator James Lankford of Oklahoma said in an interview he is working on his own proposal, and Democrat Ron Wyden of Oregon has pressed voting machine companies for information on their security practices.
Full Article: Russia Probes Spur Lawmakers on Election Security, Social Media – Bloomberg.